E.D.Mich.: Unverified tip didn’t justify a drug test of a public employee

“In this 42 U.S.C. § 1983 action, Plaintiff claims that his employer ordered him to undergo a urine drug test without reasonable suspicion that he had used drugs on the job, in violation of his Fourth Amendment right to be free from an unreasonable search and seizure. Plaintiff further claims that Defendants violated his constitutional rights when they suspended and discharged him because he refused to submit to the requested urine drug test. Defendants respond that they did have a reasonable suspicion, based on a call to their public relations department from a news reporter who passed along an anonymous tip from someone who claimed to have seen an undescribed individual smoking marijuana while sitting in a company-owned vehicle. Defendants seek dismissal of the case based upon qualified immunity. For the reasons that follow, the Court DENIES the motion to dismiss.” Greer v. McCormick, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 31211 (E.D. Mich. March 13, 2015).

In an Albuquerque Amtrak stop in a sleeper car, the court finds the involuntary consent to a patdown to be invalid. The evidence is excluded. United States v. Mitchell, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 37908 (D.N.M. February 10, 2015).*