December 6, 2011
Federal Magistrate Judge Edwin Torres yesterday denied Governor’s Scott’s attempt to subpoena records from the ACLU of Florida and subject ACLU officials to depositions in the ongoing legal challenge to Scott’s order requiring illegal, suspicionless drug testing of state employees.
In October, 2011, the ACLU challenged the subpoenas as “unreasonable, oppressive and constitute pure harassment.”
The ruling yesterday allows the Governor’s office access only to documents which are available through publication or on the ACLU’s website. But the order denied the majority of the Governor’s subpoena including taking depositions of ACLU leaders and receiving documents including studies, polling data, legislative proposals and correspondence related to private sector and public drug testing.
In the ruling, Torres wrote the court had, “serious doubts as to their relevance for purposes of this case” and that “ACLU’s ‘knowledge and position’ on employer drug testing, the prevalence of drug use, public opinion polls, and the effects of workplace drug use, have almost nothing to do with the claims or defenses in this case.” [emphasis added]
“Whatever the ACLU knows or believes about the frequency or propriety of employer drug testing or drug use simply has no relevance to the constitutional claim at issue – whether drug testing of these state employees in executive agencies is permissible under the Fourth Amendment,” Torres wrote. [emphasis added]
In addition, yesterday’s ruling also found that the Governor’s subpoenas appear to be, “boundless and untethered to the claims or defenses actually at issue in the case…”
“The Governor was clearly trying to harass and intimidate us for our frequent opposition to his policies and the Court was right to step in and put a stop to it,” said Howard Simon, Executive Director of the ACLU of Florida. “The Constitution protects everyone, even state employees, against unreasonable government searches like the Governor ordered and we look forward to continuing our challenges to Governor Scott’s unconstitutional orders and policies.”
The legal challenge to Scott’s order is currently in the federal district court in Miami. The ACLU of Florida represents the Association of Federal, State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME).
The judge's order is available here: http://www.aclufl.org/pdfs/2011-12-05-OrderMotionQuash.pdf
