Reading Room Document

Mandatory Urinalysis to Test Drug Dependency

In this memo, the OLC advised that the urinalysis testing of all arrestees for federal offenses––solely to determine dependency, so that drug treatment could be imposed as a condition of bail, and not for prosecutorial purposes––would not meet the requirements of the Fourth Amendment. It noted, with some reservations, that a more narrowly confined program that would include some criteria to identify and test those most likely to be drug dependent could meet the requirements under the Fourth Amendment. It further concluded that, on certain facts, it could be permissible to require treatment as a bail condition.

May 15, 1974