Rick Scott's latest drug-testing appeal turned away by court

Florida Gov. Rick Scott's proposals to drug test basically every Floridian are not faring so well in the courts, with the Supreme Court refusing to hear his appeal of a decision against a 2011 executive order seeking random drug testing of 85,000 state workers:

The ruling lets stand an appeals court decision that Scott's order was too broad. That decision also directed a Miami federal judge to oversee ongoing negotiations between the state and an employee union over which positions could be subjected to random drug tests.

The Supreme Court's refusal to hear the appeal follows a similar decision in late December by a federal judge in Orlando who struck down a Florida law requiring applicants for welfare benefits to undergo mandatory drug testing. Scott, a Republican, is also appealing that case.

Since the effort to drug test state workers is an executive order, it could be disappeared entirely by a Democratic victory in November; in the meantime, the union representing many of the workers Scott is trying to make pee in cups has negotiated down the number threatened with testing.

Even before legal fees, drug testing of welfare applicants cost the state money, since so few people tested positive. But the costs are nothing compared to the allure Republicans like Scott find in identifying groups of people they don't like, making them pee in cups and broadcasting them as suspected drug users.