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Friday, January 18, 2013

Arkansas Politics Lawyer vows lawsuit on unemployment drug testing bill

Posted by Max Brantley on Fri, Jan 18, 2013 at 6:16 AM

Defense lawyer John Wesley Hall writes a blog on 4th Amendment (protection against unreasonable search and seizure) issues and here he threatens a lawsuit if the Arkansas legislature passes the Republican-loved proposal by Sen. Jeremy "Gator Bait" Hutchinson to drug test applicants for unemployment benefits and random test recipients.

Hall observes after noting the bill's good chances of passage given its broad support among the Republican majority:

It looks like it will be a good year at my law firm when I sue the state, if this is actually enacted. The primary sponsor is considered by his cohorts to be a constitutional oracle, at least he was at the last session, for some unfathomable reason (tells them what they want to hear), but he only recognizes two of the Bill of Rights: The Second and Tenth Amendments. The rest are white noise.

Remember: (1) every similar provision around the country has either been struck down or withdrawn when the legislature came to their senses; (2) Arkansas passed its creation science statute back in 1981, and it cost the state about half a million in attorney's fees in 1982 dollars, and they knew it when they passed it what they were getting into. McLean v. Arkansas Bd. of Education, 529 F. Supp. 1255 (E.D. Ark. 1982); meaning: (3) the Arkansas legislature still, 32 years later, doesn't care if it is violating the constitution when it passes stuff.

How could we forget?

Tags: 4th Amendment, drug testing, unemployment benefits, John Wesley Hall

        
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