City Employee Properly Alleged Fourth Amendment Violation for Unreasonable Search and Seizure by Ordering Drug Test Based on Personal Animosity Considering when a drug test by a public employer may constitute an “unreasonable” search for Fourth Amendment purposes, a U.S. District Court in Florida also has shed light on private sector substance abuse testing that could lack “reasonable suspicion” or “cause.” There was no factual record on which the court relied. Hudson v. City of Riviera Beach, et al., No. 12-80870-civ-Rosenbaum/Hunt (S.D. Fla. Nov. 13, 2013). Since the decision was based on a motion to dismiss the aggrieved employee’s amended complaint, the court’s discussion, summarized below, addressed only the employee’s pleading allegations. Facts Plaintiff Michael Hudson was a multi-media specialist for the City of Riviera Beach, Florida. As a result of Hudson’s dispute with Troy Perry (“Troy”), the City’s Fire Chief (and later Assistant City Manager), Troy unsuccessfully sought to have Hudson reprimanded. Allegedly angered over his inability to get this done, Troy was said to have enlisted the
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help of his mother, the City’s Human Resources Director, Doretha Perry (“Perry”), who directed Hudson to submit to three different drug and alcohol tests. Hudson said he was advised he would be fired if he refused. He submitted to a breathalyzer test, urine test and a hair sample test. However, when Hudson allegedly asked Perry to explain the reasonable suspicion for the testing and requested that she provide him with any supporting documents, Perry assertedly became infuriated. “It does not work like that,” she is claimed to have retorted. “[T]here are no records[.] I don’t have to give you anything.” When Hudson assertedly showed her the Florida Drug Free Workplace Act, according to the Amended Complaint, Perry taunted, “[I]f I did breach the law[,] what are you going to do about it?” Hudson asserts he then took his complaint to the thenInterim City Manager, who allegedly said Perry should provide Hudson with copies of the documents he had sought. When Hudson told Perry of this, she allegedly
SOUTH DAKOTA MUNICIPALITIES
