September 2002 Archives

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Court Opinion Sparks New Debate on Student Drug Testing

The Supreme Court bolstered schools' abilities to conduct random, suspicionless drug tests of students in June 2002 by ruling that a public high school in Oklahoma did not violate its students' Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable searches by requiring all students who participate in extracurricular activities to submit to urinalysis testing for illegal drugs. Now, a number of school districts are considering whether to impose a greater degree of drug testing.

With Court Nod, Parents Debate School Drug Tests, New York Times, September 29, 2002.
Board of Ed. of Independent School Dist. No. 92 of Pottawatomie Cty. v. Earls, 536 U.S. ___, No. 01-332 (2002).
Tests on trial, Jobs and reputations ride on unproven drug screens, US News and World Report, August 12, 2002.
EPIC Student Privacy Page.

Vast Airline Passenger Profiling Scheme Moving Forward

A Washington Post story describes the progress made by the new Transportation Security Administration in developing what the articles says "is in effect the creation of the nation's largest domestic surveillance system." The TSA plans to perform extensive backgrounds checks on all airline passengers, searching credit histories, public records, driver license databases, criminal information and other public and private databases. The plan marks a radical break with security strategy of the past by focusing on the predictive profiling of passengers' background as the key foundation for security.

Air Security Focusing on Flier Screening September 4, 2002
Air Travel Privacy EPIC