Fla. governor suspends mass drug testing

TALLAHASSEE, Fla., June 17 (UPI) -- Florida Gov. Rick Scott has backed off random drug tests of all state employees in the face of a lawsuit, his office says.

A memo sent to all agency heads June 10 was released Thursday by the American Civil Liberties Union, which sued to block the program, the South Florida Sun Sentinel reported.

The testing will go forward only at the Corrections Department, which already tests 21,000 employees such as jail guards. Another 6,000 staff -- mostly office workers and administrators -- will now be tested.

Scott ordered blanket drug testing, without suspicion of use, in March. He also got the Legislature to mandate drug tests of all new welfare applicants, which the ACLU also may challenge.

In a federal lawsuit filed in May, the ACLU said no court has upheld drug tests of government employees without a reason, and it violates the Fourth Amendment ban against unreasonable searches.

Scott wrote he was "confident" his order will be found constitutional, but "while the case is pending, it does not make sense for all agencies to move forward."

The ACLU called his move "a massive and embarrassing retreat."