Pubdate: Wed, 09 Mar 2005 Source: Athens Banner-Herald (GA) Copyright: 2005 Athens Newspapers Inc Contact: http://www.onlineathens.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1535 Author: Francis Assaf Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/testing.htm (Drug Test) Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v05/n353/a10.html DRUG TESTING COUNTERS CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS Carlton E. Allen (Letters, March 4) is proud his son is in the Commerce school system, in which random drug testing is being proposed. Wonderful. But why stop there? Strip searches would be even more efficient. Sadly, there is that bothersome piece of fluff, the Fourth Amendment, which was probably sneaked into the Bill of Rights by liberal lily-livered, soft-on-crime pantywaists. It reads, "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized." So, like so many good and true Americans, Allen wants to do away wholesale with constitutional protections of individual rights. Perhaps he would like to set an example by submitting publicly, every day for a month, to a strip search. That would really be courageous. Francis Assaf - --- MAP posted-by: Beth