Facebook is a well (some would argue a cesspool) of memes. One of the current ones is this:
Thank you Florida, Kentucky, and Missouri, which are the first states that will require drug testing when applying for welfare. Some people are crying and calling this unconstitutional. How is this unconstitutional ? It's OK to drug test people who work for their money but not those who don't?… Re-post this if you'd like to see this done in all 50 states
Everyone should agree with this!
Amen
Beyond the obvious hoax (it's not a law in all three of these states yet) this is a patently ridiculous statement and a part of the right-wing echo chamber. Follow me over the fold if you're interested in my refutation, which has already led to one retraction.
4th Amendment, unreasonable search without probable cause. 5th Amendment, due process.
This is the right-wing meme of Reagan's "Welfare Queen" updated. It is yet another attempt to demonize and criminalize poverty.
Let's look at the argument from two different angles. Suppose the police set up a breathalizer on the sidewalk and had anyone who appeared intoxicated take the test on pain of losing their driver's license for failing, or for failing to take, the test. Would it be a violation of people's Constitutional rights? What if they tested anyone who was wearing something blue? Would that violate the principle of reasonable suspiscion?
"I had to take a drug test to earn my money" is irrelevant to the argument. What if you worked for a company that hired only right-handed people. Would that be justification to bar left-handed people from holding government office? Regardless of your opinion about pre-employment drug screenings, they are two different spheres -- and the idea that welfare is unearned is part of the meme, as if people applying for public assistance have never paid any taxes. Especially in times of high unemployment, this is patently absurd.
Other points not in the original statement but that seem to come up in the arguments: Drug tests are notoriously unreliable and are easily spoofed (I know three ways to do it with 24 hours notice and a fourth that is 100% infallible with sufficient lead time). Drug tests do not identify drug addicts, and drug addicts are not, as far as I know, prohibited from receiving government aid -- I personally know several drug addicts who have not used any drugs for periods of time from months to decades. I also know people who use or have used drugs who are not addicts.
This sort of drug testing takes a specific form of non-violent criminal activity and elevates it to a special class and then uses it to deny government benefits to people perceived to be in this class as well as justifying extraordinary methods to persecute this class. If you move into a house and the police come and search it, based not on suspiscion but simply because you moved into it, it is a groundless search. A judge who issued that warrant would be removed from the bench, and the fruits of that search would be inadmissible on 4th Amendment grounds.
Even if you successfully make the argument that people who have drug residues in their system should be ineligible for public assistance (which I believe is an argument that cannot be successfully made), the fact that someone is applying for said assistance is in no way grounds for reasonable suspiscion that they are lawbreakers.