{
  "id": "RL32911",
  "type": "CRS Report",
  "typeId": "REPORTS",
  "number": "RL32911",
  "active": false,
  "source": "EveryCRSReport.com",
  "versions": [
    {
      "source": "EveryCRSReport.com",
      "id": 306014,
      "date": "2005-06-27",
      "retrieved": "2016-04-07T19:40:24.750029",
      "title": "Federally Mandated Random Drug Testing in Professional Athletics: Constitutional Issues",
      "summary": "Problems of usage of steroids and other performance enhancing drugs in professional and\namateur\nathletics have been the focus of a series of investigative hearings before the House Government\nReform Committee. The Committee began taking evidence on March 17, 2005, when several former\nand current players, medical experts, and major league baseball executives were summoned to testify\nin the first hearing. Committee Chairman Tom Davis has urged all sports leagues to\n\u201cacknowledge\nthat their testing programs need improvement\u201d and has framed bi-partisan legislation to\nestablish a\nuniform testing policy for major professional sports leagues. Currently, there are four professional\nathletic drug testing bills before Congress:  S. 1114  (Senator McCain);\n H.R. 2565  (Representative Davis);  H.R. 1862  (Representative Stearns);\nand  H.R. 2516  (Representative Sweeney). The McCain and Davis bills are virtually\nidentical, and all four bills would establish minimum drug standards -- including random testing -- \nfor some professional sports leagues.\n \n Congressionally mandated drug-testing requirements for both public employees and workers\nin private industry subject to federal regulation have a fairly long and well established legal history. \nNonetheless, the federal courts have recognized limits, largely anchored in constitutional privacy\ninterests of affected workers, that circumscribe governmental authority to impose suspicionless\nrandom testing requirements in the public or private sectors. These decisions establish that\n\u201ccompelling\u201d governmental interests may, in appropriate circumstances, override\nconstitutional\nobjections to testing procedures by employees whose privacy expectations are diminished by the\nnature of their duties or workplace scrutiny to which they are otherwise subject. They further suggest,\nhowever, that substantial constitutional difficulties probably confront any broad-based testing\nprogram that is not limited to specific occupational categories or to persons for whom the\ngovernment is able to demonstrate some special need to test. \n \n It could be argued that professional players have a diminished expectation of privacy as the\nconsequence of league or association rules that already require routine physical examinations and\ntesting for drugs in certain circumstances. Moreover, a separate argument could be made that safety\nand health concerns associated with steroid usage, and the importance of professional athletes as role\nmodels for the nation\u2019s youth, justify unannounced testing for anabolic steroids or other\ncontrolled\nsubstances. Testing of randomly selected athletes may also be the least intrusive route to an effective\nsteroid detection program. Past major league baseball procedures, it has been argued, do not deter\nsteroid use. Moreover, arguably, the reasonable suspicion standard may be unworkable since most\noften there may be no outward symptoms to signal the use of steroids.",
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      "typeId": "REPORTS",
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          "url": "http://www.crs.gov/Reports/RL32911",
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      "topics": []
    }
  ],
  "topics": [
    "Constitutional Questions"
  ]
}