Defendant was arrested for drug offenses, and a jailer told him \u201che needed \u2018to submit to a UA.\u2019 As Jennings was getting the cup for the urine sample out, and without any Miranda advisement, Brown said, \u2018My piss is going to melt right through that cup.\u2019 … Brown provided a sample and it tested positive for methamphetamine, amphetamine and cannabinoids.\u201d The UA was valid as a search incident. United States v. Brown, 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 58791 (D. S.D. February 15, 2013):<\/p>\n
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Brown initially claims that the urine sample was taken without his consent and in violation of his Fourth Amendment rights. The lack of consent and the absence of a search warrant for the sample, he says, requires that the test results be suppressed.<\/p>\n
A law enforcement officer, however, may obtain a urine sample from a person, without a search warrant and incident to arrest, even if that person refuses to provide one himself, if there is probable cause to believe that evidence of a crime could be discovered through an analysis of that sample. Brown was placed under arrest for two drug related offenses before providing a urine sample. And a person of reasonable prudence, knowing what Jennings did at the time, would have believed that evidence of a drug offense could be discovered through an urinalysis of Brown. Hence, there was no need for Jennings to obtain a warrant for Brown’s urine. This being the case, no basis exists to suppress either the sample or the testing conducted on it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Note: I hate to admit this, but I saw this coming over 30 years ago, and I once publicly wondered why it didn’t happen: If a person is arrested and lawfully in jail, the jail has control over his or her body. (Bell v. Wolfish<\/a> (1979)) If the jailers can search his clothing (United States v. Edwards<\/a> (1974)) or possessions (Illinois v. Lafayette<\/a> (1983)), why is not a urine test of a person in custody reasonable? I’m not saying it should always happen; I’m just observing that precedent strongly supports its reasonableness.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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