Board of Ed. of Independent School Dist. No. 92 of Pottawatomie Cty. v. Earls, 536 U. S. 822 (2002)

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Cite as: 536 U. S. 822 (2002)

Ginsburg, J., dissenting

Brief for Respondents 6, 24; App. 105-106, 131. But see id., at 199 (policy requires that "[t]he medication list shall be submitted to the lab in a sealed and confidential envelope and shall not be viewed by district employees").

In granting summary judgment to the School District, the District Court observed that the District's "[p]olicy expressly provides for confidentiality of test results, and the Court must assume that the confidentiality provisions will be honored." 115 F. Supp. 2d 1281, 1293 (WD Okla. 2000). The assumption is unwarranted. Unlike Vernonia, where the District Court held a bench trial before ruling in the School District's favor, this case was decided by the District Court on summary judgment. At that stage, doubtful matters should not have been resolved in favor of the judgment seeker. See United States v. Diebold, Inc., 369 U. S. 654, 655 (1962) (per curiam) ("On summary judgment the inferences to be drawn from the underlying facts contained in [affidavits, attached exhibits, and depositions] must be viewed in the light most favorable to the party opposing the motion."); see also 10A C. Wright, A. Miller, & M. Kane, Federal Practice and Procedure § 2716, pp. 274-277 (3d ed. 1998).

Finally, the "nature and immediacy of the governmental concern," Vernonia, 515 U. S., at 660, faced by the Vernonia School District dwarfed that confronting Tecumseh administrators. Vernonia initiated its drug testing policy in response to an alarming situation: "[A] large segment of the student body, particularly those involved in interscholastic athletics, was in a state of rebellion . . . fueled by alcohol and drug abuse as well as the student[s'] misperceptions about the drug culture." Id., at 649 (internal quotation marks omitted). Tecumseh, by contrast, repeatedly reported to the Federal Government during the period leading up to the adoption of the policy that "types of drugs [other than alcohol and tobacco] including controlled dangerous substances, are present [in the schools] but have not identified themselves as major problems at this time." 1998-1999 Tecum-

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