Ferguson v. City of Charleston

March 21, 2001

Nature of case:

Challenge to a program instituted in 1989 by the Medical University of South Carolina in collaboration with local law enforcement under which the urine of pregnant women was tested for evidence of cocaine use without a warrant or consent. Women who tested positive were reported to local law enforcement officials by the hospital and were then arrested for drug use, child neglect and distribution of drugs to a minor.

Holding:

In a 6-3 decision, the Court found that the drug-testing scheme was in direct violation of the Fourth Amendment protection from unreasonable searches and seizures in the absence of consent. Writing for the majority, Justice Stevens stated, “While state hospital employees, like other citizens, may have a duty to provide the police with evidence of criminal conduct that they inadvertently acquire in the course of routine treatment, when they undertake to obtain such evidence from their patients for the specific purpose of incriminating those patients, they have a special obligation to make sure that the patients are fully informed about their constitutional rights, as standards of knowing waiver require.” The Court reversed the decision of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit which excused the lack of warrants based on a limited “special needs” exception to the Fourth Amendment. This exception allows government agencies to search for drugs without a warrant in specific circumstances when public safety is at stake. This decision maintains that the “special needs” balancing test should not be applied to the law enforcement searches of citizens, who have a reasonable expectation of privacy in medical and other personal matters.