BOARD OF EDUCATION V. EARLS, NO. 01-332(2002)

SUPREME COURT CASEDRUG TESTING STUDENT

COMPETITORS

By: Drew Jackson

Background Information On the Case

Ms. Earls thought that it was wrong for the Tecumseh

School System to drug test any school students that were taking their time to participate in the schools’ extracurricular activities. This is where the Supreme Court Case began to form.

Court of Appeals The determination to prove her point led

Ms. Earls to take this case to the United States Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit, in Denver.

Ms. Earls still stuck with her general argument in this case, but also brought up the Forth Amendment.

Court of Appeals Cont. Ms. Earls’ argued that the Fourth

Amendment was being violated because she saw this drug testing as An unreasonable search and seizure.

Ms. Earl was successful in presenting her case.

This is what led to her success and eventually winning this case, in the United States Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit.

Board of Education v. Earls, No. 01-332(2002)

This case was still far from over the school system was not ready to give into this decision by the

Court of Appeals.

Board of Education v. Earls, No. 01-332(2002)

BOARD OF EDUCATION EARLS

The Board of Education formed their argument that they wanted to randomly drug test

students to help protect them and keep them safe on the travels of the school’s teams.

Ms. Earls still held with her argument that she had formed earlier in

the case that she presented in the Court

of appeals.

Majority Decision The Judges in the majority were: Rehnquis,

Scalia, Kennedy, Breyer, and Thomas. Judge Thomas wrote the majority decision. There was not to be any hand selecting for

these drug tests and they were to all Be random as well as private.

They saw that this was very much like the schools having random drug searches, and this was lawful.

Dissenting Decision The four Judges in the dissention were:

Stevens, O’Connor, Souter, and Ginsburg. Ginsburg also wrote the dissenting opinion. The dissention was based on the fact the

drug testing was random, and that a random drug test would not be affecting every student. This was not seen as fair because they would not treat all the students the same. They said they were drug testing too many students and too few at the same time.

The Final Vote

MAJORITY V. DISSENTION

The trial ended with a vote of five to four in favor of randomly drug testing the student competitors.

Conclusion of the CaseIn the end of this case the Board of

Education won in 2002. This led to the Tecumseh School System being able to randomly drug test all of their student

competitors.

The Effects of the Case

The conclusion of this case allowed the random drug testing of student competitors,

but now that it has gone through the Supreme Court, schools around the nation

can also take these precautions to help protect their student body.

BibliographyGreenhouse, Linda. "THE SUPREME COURT: DRUG TESTS; Justices Allow Schools Wider Use Of Random Drug Tests for Pupils." The New York Times. The New York Times, 28 June 2002. Web. 19 Nov. 2013.

"BOARD OF EDUCATION OF TECUMSEH PUBLIC SCHOOL." 2001. Web. 17 Nov. 2013.

"BOARD OF EDUCATION v. EARLS." Board of Education v. Earls. Web. 18 Nov. 2013.

"Board of Education v. Earls No. 01-332(2002)." 2002. Web. 17 Nov. 2013.