Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live Today

Supreme Court Says Yes to Vouchers and Drug Tests

Aired June 27, 2002 - 13:35   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Now we want to take a closer look at the Constitution and Court. CNN, legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin joins us from New York with more on today's Supreme Court decisions and the court issues surrounding the Pledge of Allegiance.

So, Jeffrey, last time you and I spoke, we talked about, briefly, how we can read into the Supreme Court decision on vouchers, and how the Court just may rule on a case of the Pledge of Allegiance, if indeed it comes to that, since they don't, apparently, have problem with separation of church and state, when it comes to state funds being used for private schools.

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Right. Both decisions are -- obviously deal with very different subjects, but they both deal with exactly the same provision of the Bill of Rights, the portion of the First Amendment that says "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion."

What you see from the United States Supreme Court is very much an attitude of accommodation of religion, not hostility to religion. The idea that if you set up a system that allows parents to pay for a private education, some of those parents -- in Cleveland virtually all of those parents -- are allowed to use that money at parochial schools.

In the decision out of California, you have a much stricter idea of separation between church and state, to the extent that the words "under God" should be prohibited in a public school. I think the U.S. Supreme Court is the highest court in the land in every respect, and I think that attitude suggests that the "under God" ruling yesterday is very likely to be overturned, either by the 9th Circuit itself or by the Supreme Court.

WHITFIELD: All right. Another significant ruling out of the Supreme Court today involves random drug testing, not just for athletes but for anyone who is in any kind of organized group or school sanctioned activity.

TOOBIN: Right. This is the way the Supreme Court often works. They take a decision and it either gets expanded or contracted at the margins. The decision from 1995 said that it was OK to have random drug testing of high school athletes. Today the decision was regarding, well, is it OK to have random drug testing of other extracurricular activities, such as the band, such as Future Farmers of America, and the Court said yes, it was OK.

The idea was that, given the importance the Court attaches to protecting students from drugs, the intrusion on them really was reasonable, the intrusion of forcing them to submit to these sorts of tests was really not so onerous, and there was a real benefit, protecting them from drugs, and also some activities involve using equipment, like Future Farmers of America, and the Court did not feel there was an invasion of privacy that justified shutting it down.

WHITFIELD: All right. Jeffrey Toobin, thank you very much.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com