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Opinion of the Court
phasized both in the majority opinions sustaining the programs in the first three cases,16 as well as in the dissent in the Chandler case.17 In this case, however, the central and indispensable feature of the policy from its inception was the use of law enforcement to coerce the patients into substance abuse treatment. This fact distinguishes this case from circumstances in which physicians or psychologists, in the
that Griffin is properly read as limited by the fact that probationers have a lesser expectation of privacy than the public at large. Id., at 874-875.
16 In Skinner v. Railway Labor Executives' Assn., 489 U. S. 602 (1989), this Court noted that "[t]he FRA has prescribed toxicological tests, not to assist in the prosecution of employees, but rather 'to prevent accidents and casualties in railroad operations that result from impairment of employees by alcohol or drugs.' " Id., at 620-621 (quoting 49 CFR § 219.1(a) (1987)). Similarly, in Treasury Employees v. Von Raab, 489 U. S. 656 (1989), we concluded that it was "clear that the Customs Service's drug-testing program is not designed to serve the ordinary needs of law enforcement. Test results may not be used in a criminal prosecution of the employee without the employee's consent." Id., at 665-666. In the same vein, in Acton, 515 U. S., at 658, we relied in part on the fact that "the results of the tests are disclosed only to a limited class of school personnel who have a need to know; and they are not turned over to law enforcement authorities or used for any internal disciplinary function" in finding the searches reasonable.
17 "Today's opinion speaks of a 'closely guarded' class of permissible suspicionless searches which must be justified by a 'special need.' But this term, as used in Skinner and Von Raab and on which the Court now relies, was used in a quite different sense than it is used by the Court today. In Skinner and Von Raab it was used to describe a basis for a search apart from the regular needs of law enforcement, Skinner, [489 U. S.], at 620; Von Raab, [489 U. S.], at 669. The 'special needs' inquiry as delineated there has not required especially great 'importan[ce],' [520 U. S.], at 318, unless one considers 'the supervision of probationers,' or the 'operation of a government office,' Skinner, supra, at 620, to be especially 'important.' Under our precedents, if there was a proper governmental purpose other than law enforcement, there was a 'special need,' and the Fourth Amendment then required the familiar balancing between that interest and the individual's privacy interest." Chandler v. Miller, 520 U. S., at 325 (Rehnquist, C. J., dissenting).
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