Crystal Ferguson, et al.
Petitioners
Priscilla Smith, Counsel of RecordCrystal Ferguson and her nine fellow petitioners were either arrested or threatened with arrest following testing positive for cocaine use during pregnancy-related visits to the Medical University of South Carolina. They filed suit in 1993, alleging that the hospital’s drug-testing policy, started in 1989, constituted a warrantless search by law enforcement. Such searches are forbidden under the Fourth Amendment unless the government has a compelling reason. After a district court jury held that the Petitioners consented to the testing, the 10 women appealed to the Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. On July 13, 1999, the…
