Court spectator sues judge for drug testing without probable cause!
NASHVILLE, Tennessee - January 6, 2010 - A Tennessee judge who ordered a court spectator to submit to a drug test based "on a hunch" is being sued for infringing on the spectator's constitutional rights.
Benjamin Marchant's lawsuit against Dickson County Judge Durwood Moore says Marchant was a spectator in the court in January of 2009, waiting to give a friend a ride home, when Moore ordered sheriff's deputies to administer a urinalysis on Marchant on nothing more than a "hunch."
Marchant says he was released when the drug test came back negative.
His lawsuit states that Judge Moore admitted that he "routinely drug-screens spectators in his courtroom if he thinks they may be under the influence of drugs or alcohol," a policy Moore reportedly calls routine, according to Courthouse News.
The lawsuit says Judge Moore was publicly censured by the Tennessee Supreme Court last May over the incident, and was ordered "to never violate a person’s constitutional rights as he did to the plaintiff."
Benjamin Marchant's lawsuit against Dickson County Judge Durwood Moore says Marchant was a spectator in the court in January of 2009, waiting to give a friend a ride home, when Moore ordered sheriff's deputies to administer a urinalysis on Marchant on nothing more than a "hunch."
Marchant says he was released when the drug test came back negative.
His lawsuit states that Judge Moore admitted that he "routinely drug-screens spectators in his courtroom if he thinks they may be under the influence of drugs or alcohol," a policy Moore reportedly calls routine, according to Courthouse News.
The lawsuit says Judge Moore was publicly censured by the Tennessee Supreme Court last May over the incident, and was ordered "to never violate a person’s constitutional rights as he did to the plaintiff."
