Drug testing

Dartmouth student Lindsay Earls loses in her appeal to the Supreme Court over mandatory drug-testing for participants in extracurricular activites. The Court was split 5-4, with Justices Thomas, Rehnquist, Scalia, Kennedy, and Breyer in the majority.

Writing for the dissenters, Justice Ginsburg fears that the policy “invades the privacy of students who need deterrence least and risks steering students at greatest risk for substance abuse away from extracurricular involvement that potentially may palliate drug problems.”

“This policy reasonably serves the school district�s important interest in detecting and preventing drug use among its students, we hold that it is constitutional,” wrote Justice Thomas for the majority.