State employees in Florida can now get back to all the cocaine-and-quaalude-fueled late nights we imagine they put off after Governor Rick Scott issued a March 2011 executive order requiring random drug tests for state workers. A federal judge has ruled that such tests violate folks’ protections against unreasonable search and seizure.

“[Gov. Scott] offers no plausible rationale explaining why the fact that a state employee’s work product and financial status are publicly accessible leads to the conclusions that the employee’s expectation of privacy in his or her bodily functions and fluids are then diminished,” the U.S. District Court judge wrote in her decision to toss out the mandate.

Saying that Florida taxpayers “overwhelmingly support this policy,” the governor says he plans to keep fighting for the drug tests: “As I have repeatedly explained, I believe that drug testing state employees is a common sense means of ensuring a safe, efficient and productive workforce.”

In October, a different federal judge put a block on the state’s plans to require drug tests for residents who receive welfare benefits.

Florida judge blocks drug tests for state workers [Reuters]

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