Opinion for the Court filed by Circuit Judge MIKVA.
This сhallenge to a federal employee drug testing program raises Fourth Amendment issues both familiar and new to this court. Appellant, the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), appeals an order of the district court allowing the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to proceed with random urinalysis drug testing of certain USDA motor vehicle operators and “reasonable suspicion” drug testing of other Department workers.
See National Treasury Employees Union v. Yeutter,
I. BACKGROUND
Executive Order 12,564, issued September 15, 1986, barred drug use by federal employees on- and off-duty, and directed each executive agеncy to develop a plan for achieving a “drug-free workplace.” Exec. Order No. 12,564, 3 C.F.R. 224 (1987) reprinted in 5 U.S.C. § 7301 note at 909-11 (1988). The Order specified that these plans should provide for voluntary drug testing, testing when “there is a reasonable suspicion that any employee uses illegal drugs,” post-accident and unsafe practice testing, testing in connection with drug counseling and rehabilitation, and testing of job applicants. Id. at 910. Responding to this Order, USDA issued its Drug-Free Workplace Program (the “Program”) in August 1988. U.S. Dep’t of Agric., Drug-Free Workplace Program (Department Personnel Manual Supp. 792-3, issued August 8, 1988).
NTEU challenged several aspects of the Program in its capacity as the collective bargaining representative of more than 800 employees of USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service (FNS), and the district court consolidated that suit with a related action brought by the National Association of Agricultural Employees, representing employees of USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS). Together, the unions sought injunctions against random testing, reasonable suspicion testing, applicant testing, and post-accident testing.
On cross-motions for summary judgment, the trial court permanently enjoined random urinalysis testing of APHIS inspectors and FNS computer specialists, finding that the government lacks a constitutionally sufficient interest in testing these workers.
NTEU v. Yeutter,
On appeal, NTEU challenges those portions of the district court’s order allowing USDA to go forward with random urinalysis drug testing of FNS motor vehicle operators and reasonable suspicion testing of all FNS workers. The National Association of Agricultural Employees is not a party to this appeal, and no other provisions of the USDA Program are at issue. Appellant does not challenge the district court’s disposition of its statutory claims.
II. Analysis
The judicial slate on Fourth Amendment challenges to government drug testing programs is already well-inscribed, with the Supreme Court’s pronouncements in
Skinner v. Railway Labor Executives Association,
In
Von Raab,
the Court upheld those parts of a Customs Service testing plan that mandated urinalysis of employees directly involved in drug interdiction and those required to carry firearms. The Court followed the analytic path taken in
Skinner,
weighing the public interest in drug testing against the reasonable privacy expectations of tested employees.
Skinner
and
Von Raab
establish that compelled urinalysis is a Fourth Amendment search, but also that individualized suspicion of drug use is not an invariable constitutional necessity.
Skinner,
A. Motor Vehicle Operators
We do not start from scratch when evaluating NTEU’s challenge to random testing of FNS drivers, a fact that greatly simplifies our balancing task. Because this part of USDA’s Program parallels provisions of a Department of Transportation (DOT) drug testing program upheld in
American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) v. Skinner,
In AFGE v. Skinner this court noted that:
[S]trong safety interests support the testing of most Departmеnt [of Transportation] motor vehicle operators, who are responsible for, inter alia, the transportation of visiting foreign dignitaries and key Department officials and the operation of passenger-laden shuttle buses. Shuttle buses transport as many as 1,200 passengers each day. Thus, obvious safety interests support the testing of the majority of the Department’s motor vehicle operators.
The procedures for random testing of FNS drivers are identical in relevant respects to those at issue in
AFGE v. Skinner,
as both USDA and DOT follow drug testing regulations issued by the Department of Health and Human Services.
See AFGE v. Skinner,
NTEU stresses that whereas DOT motor vehicle operators routinely drove shuttlе-buses, FNS drivers primarily chauffeur officials and deliver documents, with shuttle responsibilities limited to filling in for a private bus driver during lunch hours and sick days. From this the union concludes that the government’s safety interest is so much weaker here than in AFGE v. Skinner that the constitutional balance tips against testing.
*972
But in
AFGE v. Skinner
the court considered DOT’S safety interest in testing its drivers “obvious,”
While the safety concern may be somewhat greater for a school bus driver, it is still quite significant in the case of an employee who is responsible for supervising, attending and carrying handicapped children. For example, the danger to a young, handicapped child, should she be dropped by,an attendant or ignored while crossing the street, is obvious.
Id.
at 340. If the government has a “compelling” interest in testing school bus attendants for drug use, as this court confirmed in
Jones
upon remand from the Supreme Court,
see Jones v. Jenkins,
Nor do differences in the privacy expeсtations of FNS and DOT motor vehicle operators suggest a different outcome. It is true that the drivers in
AFGE v. Skinner,
unlike FNS drivers, underwent background investigations that should have diminished their expectations of privacy with respect to testing for use of illegal drugs.
AFGE v. Skinner,
NTEU claims that upholding testing of FNS drivers will open the door to testing of all government employees who drive to work, or even all licensed drivers. This is more rhetoric than argument. It is not obvious to us that the government could show a special need, unrelated to law enforcement, to test drivers who do not carry passengers; nor do most drivers have diminished privacy expectations with respect to drug testing. True, the Supreme Court “has quite clearly eschewed an approach to drug testing based on bright lines,”
Harmon v. Thornburgh,
B. Reasonable Suspicion Testing
All USDA employees are subject to reasonable suspicion urinalysis under the Program. If an FNS employee is suspected of on-duty or off-duty drug use, his or her supervisor will inform the Service’s Personnel Director, who makes thе final determination of whether or not reasonable suspicion exists and, if reasonable suspicion is found, compiles a written record of the evidence suggesting drug use. Reasonable suspicion may be based on, “among other things”:
1. Observable phenomena, such as direct observation of drug use or possession and/or the physical symptom(s) of being under the influence of a drug.
2. A pattern of abnormal conduct or erratic behavior.
3. Arrest or conviction for a drug-related offense, or the identification of an employee as the focus of a criminal in *973 vestigation into illegal drug possession, use, or trafficking.
4. Information prоvided either by reliable and credible sources or independently corroborated.
5. Newly discovered evidence that the employee has tampered with a previous drug test.
U.S. Dep’t of Agric., Drug-Free Workplace Program § 10-1(A). “Although reasonable suspicion testing does not require certainty,” USDA regulations specify, “ ‘mere hunches’ are not sufficient to meet this standard.” Id.
Urine samples are analyzed for the presence of marijuana, cocaine, opiates, amphetamines, PCP, or, with the approval of the Department of Health and Human Services, for other controlled substances. Id. at Appendix B-l. Subject to restrictions imposed by the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978, employees who test positive may suffer “the full range of disciplinary actions, including removal.” Id. at § 8-l(C).
The immunoassay and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry testing techniques required by federal drug testing guidelines are highly accurate if properly employed.
Skinner,
1. Off-Duty Drug Use
The permissibility of a government search is determined “ ‘by balancing its intrusion on the individual’s Fourth Amendment interests against its promotion of legitimate government interests.’ ”
Skinner,
In
O’Connor v. Ortega,
Von Raab
and
Skinner
accord with this understanding.
Von Raab
recognized a government interest in off-duty drug use only with respect to those Customs Service employees with exceptional duties (drug in
*974
terdiction, use of firearms, and access to “truly sensitive information”).
See
Decisions of this court also suggest that, outside of the law enforcement context, the government’s legitimate interest in employee drug testing extends no further than its interest in workplace conduct and performance of work responsibilities. In
Harmon v. Thornburgh,
we stated in the course of reviewing a Department of Justice random urinalysis plan that “federal employmеnt alone is not a sufficient predicate for mandatory urinalysis,” and that “the government may search its employees only when a clear, direct nexus exists between the nature of the employee’s duty and the nature, of the feared violation.”
The government counters that it has a legitimate interest in deterring drug use that might affect work performance, that employees who use drugs off the job risk performance-impairing addiction, that off-duty drug users may buy drugs at work or steal to support their habit, and that drug use by federal workers may erode public confidence in the employing agency. But the government has not produced evidence that might establish a relationship between off-the-job drug use and job performance; its arguments rely either on an unsupported connection between off-duty drug use and government efficiency or on general integrity and deterrence rationales of the sort rejected in Harmon and Cheney. The government has ample latitude to intervene before its fears about off-duty drug use are realizеd in the form of poor work performance, as law enforcement officials may investigate the worker under appropriate constitutional and statutory restrictions. Similarly, the government may investigate and punish wrongdoing within the walls of its offices as an employer and as a law enforcer, again under applicable legal constraints. What the government may not do in the case of ordinary employees is justify drug testing procedures that intrude upon constitutionally protected privacy interests with speculation about possible future job impairment or rules violations.
We hold, therefore, that the USDA Program is unconstitutional insofar as it authorizes mandatory drug testing of FNS workers who do not hold safety- or security-sensitive jobs, absent reasonable suspicion of on-duty drug use or drug-impaired work performance.
2. On-Duty Drug Use or Impairment
When, however, reasonable suspicion of drug use arises from evidence of on-the-job drug use or impairment, USDA’s interest in efficient operations may justify departure from warrant and probable cause requirements.
See Skinner,
We are mindful that mandatory urinalysis represents a substantial intrusion on employee privacy, and that most FNS *975 workers have less reason to expect inquiries into thеir physical and mental fitness than Customs Service employees or railroad engineers. So too, we reject the government’s abortive suggestion that FNS’ mission to advance human nutrition and protect the agricultural economy bears on the outcome of this case. Still, we cannot conclude that employee privacy concerns outweigh the government’s interest in testing employees reasonably suspected of using drugs, or of being drug-impaired, while on duty.
The Supreme Court has made it clear that the very fact of individualized suspicion goes far toward making a search reasonable where the government has a legitimate interest in confirming the alleged violation.
See Skinner,
We therefore reject NTEU’s core challenge to reasonable suspicion testing where on-duty drug use or impairment is suspected.
3. Supervisor Training and Discretion
Alternatively, NTEU argues that
all
reasonable suspicion testing of FNS employees is constitutionally defective because FNS supervisors have not been given sufficient training or guidelines for detecting drug impairment. We agree that the reasonableness of a suspicion of drug use formed solely on the basis of “abnormal conduct” is not self-evident, especially since the government’s own expert suggests that drug intoxication may produce “few overt signs.” Declaration of Robert L. DuPont, Jr., M.D. at 2,
reproduced in
Joint Appendix at 242, 243. So too, we recognize that plausible objections to the adequacy of USDA’s video training program might be raised by a tested employee challenging a specific finding of reasonable suspicion. But none of this is fatal in the context of a facial challenge. Since this court cannot say that supervisors necessarily exercise “unbridled discretion” when they follow USDA regulations, NTEU’s arguments must await consideration in a challenge to the regulations as applied.
See Skinner,
C. Observation of Urination
NTEU also challenges the Program’s procedural guidelines to the extent that they require visual observation of all employees who are ordered to undergo reasonable suspicion urinalysis. Whereas most tested employees and job applicants are allowed to provide their urine sample without direct visual observation unless testing personnel have specific reason to believe that they may try to cheat on the test, USDA assumes in the case of any employee called in for reasonable suspicion testing that the individual “may alter or substitute the specimen to be provided.” Accordingly, a collection monitor of the same sex will watch the employee urinate. U.S. Dep’t of Agrie., Drug-Free Workplace Program § 13-1(B). This provision is distinct and clearly severable from those that govern reasonable suspicion testing generally, so it is appropriate to measure the observation requirement itself against the core constitutional test of reasonableness. Because we can discern no weighty government interest in observation that counterbalances its intrusion on employee privacy, *976 we hold that this procedural provision violates the Fourth Amendment.
Neither
Von Raab
nor
Skinner
directly addressed visual monitoring procedures, but both decisions contain language relevant to our inquiry. In
Von Raab
the Court held that the absence of visual observation “significantly” diminishes the intrusion on employee privacy,
We need not resolve whatever tensions may exist in Supreme Court precedent tо determine that the visual monitoring regulation now at issue does not significantly improve testing accuracy. .In
Von Raab,
the government strongly defended the accuracy of urinalysis testing. This led the Court to conclude that, even absent routine visual monitoring, “no employee reasonably can ... expect attempts at adulteration to succeed, in view of the precautions taken by the sample collector to ensure the integrity of the sample.”
Since nothing in the USDA regulations requires administrators to give employees who are suspected of drug use prior notice of testing, these employees will have greater difficulty arming themselves to foil a drug test than, for example, USDA job applicants, who have prior warning of drug testing but are not watched while urinating. On average, employees suspected of drug use may be more likely to cheat on a urine test than randomly tested employees or job applicants; it does not follow, though, that drug users are more likely to cheat on surprise reasonable suspicion drug tests than on previously announced random tests or applicant tests. We also have heard no reason why the standard monitoring procedures — collecting outer-garments, dying toilet water, listening for urination — are inadequate to keep suspected drug users from cheating if they are adequate to prevent unsuspected drug users from doing the same.
Finally, we note that the agency responsible for developing government drug testing guidelines, the Department of Health and Human Services, has concluded that visual observation is unnecessary to ensure accuracy except where there is specific “reason to believe that a particular individual may alter or substitute the specimen to be provided.” Mandatory Guidelines for Federal Workplace Drug Testing Programs, 53 Fed.Reg. at 11,981. This determination by a federal agency with relеvant expertise makes us especially hesitant to accept the government’s say-so that automatic visual monitoring significantly improves testing accuracy.
Accordingly, we invalidate the Program’s guidelines for visual monitoring to the extent that they require observation whenever reasonable suspicion testing is conducted, regardless of the circumstances. Appellant has not challenged, and we do not address, other provisions that authorize individualized determinations of a need for observation. It is implicit in our holding, however, that indications of drug use sufficient to warrant reasonable suspicion testing will not necessarily establish a legitimate need to observe urination in all instances.
*977 D. Remedy
We are mindful that injunctions issued by federal courts should be narrowly tailored to remedy the harm shown.
Gulf Oil Corp. v. Brock,
Accordingly, appellees must be enjoined from testing FNS employees under the Program’s reasonable suspicion testing provisions except where: 1) there is reasonable, articulable, and individualized suspicion of on-duty drug use or impairment; or 2) the employee at issue holds a security- or safety-sensitive position as to which mandatory random urinalysis may be conducted under this opinion and the opinion and order of the district court. FNS motor vehicle operators fall within this latter category. Appellees also must be enjoined from requiring visual observation of urination when the need for observation is established by nothing more than the fact of reasonable suspicion testing.
III. Conclusion
We affirm the district court’s opinion and order insofar as it allows USDA to proceed with random urinalysis drug testing of FNS motor vehicle operators, finding no basis to distinguish these employees from those subject to random testing under the DOT plan at issue in AFGE v. Skinner. We also affirm the district court’s decision to the extent that it permits reasonable suspicion testing of these motor vehicle operators to go forward.
With regard to reasonable suspicion testing of FNS employees who do not hold security- or safety-sensitive pоsitions, however, we remand to the district court with instructions to modify the injunction so as to prohibit reasonable suspicion urinalysis drug testing that is not supported by reasonable, articulable, and individualized suspicion of on-duty drug use or impairment. We further instruct the district court to enjoin appellees from requiring visual observation of urination whenever an employee is ordered to undergo reasonable suspicion testing, and from authorizing observation of urination during reasonable suspicion drug tests absent an individualized determination that visual monitoring is warranted.
The case is remanded to the district court for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
So ordered.
