Judge halts drug tests as condition of Florida payments

[The Straight Story]

Judge halts drug tests as condition of Florida payments

(Reuters) - Florida will not be allowed to require applicants for cash assistance to needy families to pass a drug test before receiving payments, a federal judge ruled on Monday.

In a 37-page ruling, U.S. District Court Judge Mary Scriven in Orlando granted an injunction barring the state from enforcing the new law until the case is resolved.

The lawsuit was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida on behalf of a University of Central Florida student who refused to take the test when he applied for Temporary Assistance to Needy Families, a federal program that provides cash assistance to families with children.

In her ruling, Scriven said the testing procedure could cause irreparable harm to recipients.

Judge Scriven said that an injunction would protect recipients from any harm to their constructional rights while the case is heard.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/24/us-florida-welfare-idUSTRE79N79C20111024

[Blue Owl]

1. Let's all relieve ourselves on Rick Scott and tell him it's raining.

Just for fun.

[HockeyMom]

2. Scott wanted to drug test all state employees

randomly as a condition of continuing employment too. All those druggie government employees on the state dole. If they weren't druggies, they would be working in a for profit BUSINESS? Tricky Ricky dropped that one. Too much precedence on that.

[jmowreader]

3. The judge's ruling didn't go far enough

Rick Scott's wife "owns" most of the drug testing labs in Florida. If you were to trace the history of ownership far enough you'd probably find that Rick the Felon actually owns the labs and is using his wife as a blind trustee while he's busy running Florida into the ground. The real problem with the testing isn't that it could cause "irreparable harm" to the recipients, it's that it WILL unjustly enrich Rick Scott.

The sick thing about the current crop of Republicans is they seem to be saying to their constituents, "ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for me." This "go pee at a lab I own if you want benefits" thing is slightly sicker than Herman Cain's plan to eliminate his own tax liability, just because it provides such a load on the poor. If you're poor enough to need government assistance, you're also poor enough that you can't spare even a temporary loss of the $45 it costs to get a drug test. Yes, you get it back...but I can remember lots of times when $45 was two weeks' grocery money. (This may be one of the main reasons the testing caught so few drug users--when there's effectively a $45 application fee for public assistance, it's going to cut down on the number of people who apply.)