1. An approved drug use test must be conducted within reasonable parameters. In Capua, the court determined that a urine collection process may not be reasonable if “done under close surveillance of a government representative [as it] is likely to be a very embarrassing and humiliating experience.” Courts will generally balance the employee’s rights against the employer’s stated basis for the test and determine whether the cause of the test is reasonable and substantial. For instance, in Skinner v. Railway Labor Executives Assn., the Supreme Court stated that the railway employees had a reduced expectation of privacy due to the highly regulated nature of the industry. In addition, societal interests, such as safety and security of the railways, may outweigh the individual employee’s privacy interests. When might this be the case?
2. Why do you think the Court made a distinction between positions involving contact with drugs and firearms and positions that require handling of classified materials?

In Skinner v. Railway Labor Executives Assn., decided today, we held that federal regulations requiring employees of private railroads to produce urine samples for chemical testing implicate the Fourth Amendment, as those tests invade reasonable expectations of privacy. Our earlier cases have settled that the Fourth Amendment protects individuals from unreasonable searches conducted by the Government, even when the Government acts as an employer and, in view of our holding in Railway Labor that urine tests are searches, it follows that the Customs Service’s drug testing program must meet the reasonableness requirement of the Fourth Amendment.