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Thursday, May 16, 2013NC Senate Requires Welfare Drug Testing, but Not Representatives
By Nicole Flatow on Apr 23, 2013 at 3:05 pm
A bill that passed the North Carolina Senate Monday night
would impose mandatory drug testing on all
welfare applicants, in spite of federal court rulings blocking similar state
provisions as likely unconstitutional. North Carolina’s proposal goes even
farther than Florida’s court-invalidated provision,
requiring all applicants to a program for the indigent to pay for the mandatory
test out of their own pockets. Only if they pass the test will they later be
reimbursed by the state for the tests, which average $100. The Senate measure
passed along party lines – without a proposed amendment to also subject
lawmakers to the invasive tests. Raw Story explains: At the same time, senators rejected an amendment offered
by Democratic state Sen. Gladys Robinson that would have drug tested lawmakers,
the governor and cabinet secretaries. “We
receive state funds, we represent the law, we institute policy,” Robinson told
senators on Monday night. “So, it
should not be above any of us to submit to drug screening.”
Republican State Sen. Jim Davis said that he did not mind
being tested, but insisted that he would vote against the amendment because it
had no mechanism to provide him with a reimbursement for the $100 test.
Instead of voting on Robinson’s amendment, state Senator Tom Apodaca (R) used a
substitute amendment as a parliamentary maneuver to kill the proposal. “The substitute amendment is offered to have
the effect of killing the other amendment,” Democratic state Sen. Martin Nesbitt
explained in a floor speech. “You
need to know that before you vote because you’ll be killing the one that
requires a drug test of the leaders of this state since we want to require it
for the followers of this state.” “And
we seem to be getting into a situation where we’re kind above the people,” he added.
At least eight other states have laws that test public benefit
recipients or applicants, and at least 29 introduced new proposals this year,
following on the ALEC and Big Pharma-backed movement to pass
drug-testing provisions. But like the Florida law struck down by a federal appeals court in
February, North Carolina’s law is particularly onerous and constitutionally
suspect, because it contains a blanket provision requiring all applicants to be
drug-tested. A drug test is considered a search under the Fourth Amendment, and
“there is nothing inherent to the condition of being impoverished that supports
the conclusion that there is a ‘concrete danger’ that impoverished individuals
are prone to drug use” to justify the warrant-less search, that court held. In addition to imposing a potentially
unconstitutional requirement on applicants, North Carolina’s bill imposes what
would for many constitute an impassable barrier to entry. Those indigent enough
to qualify for Temporary Assistance For Needy Families likely do not have $100
to pay for a drug test up front – whether or not they are later reimbursed.
