ACLU Seeks City Worker to Challenge Drug Testing

Because of a Superior Court ruling last week, the American Civil Liberties Union is looking for a city employee to be a new plaintiff in a challenge to Glendale’s drug-testing program for municipal workers.

The original plaintiff is a 33-year-old attorney who claimed that her tax dollars as a city resident were being spent illegally in the testing. But Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Richard A. Lavine ruled Dec. 19 that “the alleged taxpayer shows no harm to herself financially or to her alleged constitutional rights” because she is not a city employee.

Plaintiff Lorraine L. Loder claimed that the testing policy violates an individual’s rights to privacy and wastes tax dollars.

The judge gave the ACLU 30 days to amend its suit. ACLU attorney Gary S. Williams said Wednesday he disagreed with the judge’s ruling but is seeking a city employee who lives in Glendale to serve as a second plaintiff. “We have our feelers out,” he said.

The suit, filed in September, seeks to stop Glendale’s policy of requiring urinalysis of all city employees seeking promotions and of all municipal job applicants. The testing began Aug. 1.

Employees seeking promotions or new applicants are disqualified if their urine shows amounts of controlled substances above certain standards, if they refuse to be tested or if they fail to sign waivers releasing the test results to the city.