Lindsay and Lacey Earls wanted to participate in the choir and Future Farmers of America at Tecumseh High School. When the school in 1998 required random drug-testing in all extra-curricular activities involving competition with other schools, the girls were subjected to urinalysis on several occasions. They always tested negative.
Finally, they brought a lawsuit against the school and lost in the federal district court. They appealed to the US Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. It agreed that drug-testing students who engaged in extracurricular activities other than athletics (where the Supreme Court had already ruled in favor of drug testing) was a violation of their Fourth Amendment rights.
The school district appealed to the Supreme Court. In a 5-4 ruling, it upheld the school's drug-testing program. The court majority said the drug policy was "entirely reasonable" given the "nation-wide epidemic of drug use." Writing in dissent, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg argued that "the particular testing program upheld today is not reasonable, it is capricious, even perverse" since it was targeting motivated students who were "least likely to be at risk from illicit drugs and their damaging effects."
Although the ruling addressed "competitive" extra-curricular activities, it opened the door wide to drug testing in all extra-curricular activities, and could lead to the random testing of all students. Critics fear it would be counterproductive, causing students to drop out of the very activities that could keep them engaged and away from drugs.