Derek Newton
Communications Director, ACLU of Florida
(Cartoon by Bill Sanders of Sanders cartoon-commentary)
This cartoon helps capture the struggle between Governor Scott and the state of Florida and the ACLU of Florida over drug testing.
The Fourth Amendment protects citizens from being subjected to a government search without reasonable suspicion. It’s one of the core tenets of our justice system.
That’s why the ACLU of Florida has fought so hard to stop the suspicionless drug testing of Floridians being pushed by Governor Scott and the Legislature. In the past year they have passed laws and issued orders that would subject tens of thousands of Floridians to government drug testing.
In late 2011, the ACLU of Florida represented Orlando resident Luis Lebron in a challenge to the state law requiring testing for applications for temporary assistance. Lebron, a Navy veteran, single father, caretaker of his disabled mother, and full-time University of Central Florida, succeeded in getting the law blocked by a federal court in Orlando. Governor Scott has appealed the decision.
Just two weeks ago, the ACLU of Florida went to federal court in Miami on behalf of AFSCME – the state’s largest public employee union – to challenge the Governor’s order requiring suspicionless testing for state workers under his authority. A decision in that challenge is expected at any time.
And in the final days of this Legislative Session, lawmakers are considering yet another attempt to force government drug testing on state workers.
When Floridians are subjected to invasive, stigmatizing government searches, the ACLU of Florida will stand up to protect the rights of people like Luis Lebron, state workers, and everyone else subjected to these unconstitutional policies.
ACLU of Florida 
This man has been pissing on the Constitution since the day he took office–from suppressing access to abortion, to Jerrymandering. From voter suppression laws to privatizing everything and anything. He’s a union-buster, education-killer, job-killer–Florida killer! He is a 1-percenter, for the 1-percenters.
What really aggravates me are the politicians who keep saying “You shouldn’t object to a drug test as long as you have nothing to hide”. I guess they think it would be O.K. for the police to start making random home inspections to make sure there is nothing illegal going on inside. After all, as long as you are behaving yourself at home, there shouldn’t be any problem, right?
Scott and the Teapublicans take their cues from ALEC and the Koch Brothers. They scream how Obama is taking their freedom away when it is they that are interested in unconstitutional drug testing, meddling in women’s health care, and manipulating voting rights through gerrymandering and photo ID laws. The American electorate needs to become educated to the threats that come from within and not be taken in by partisan media and vote intelligently.