DRUG TESTING TENANTS: DOES IT VIOLATE RIGHTS OF PRIVACY?
Editors’ Synopsis: Drug activity is a serious problem in many apartment complexes. Innocent tenants can be victimized by violent crime, robberies, and burglaries committed by drug dealers and users. In recent years, the popular press has reported stories concerning private sector landlords who are requiring prospective tenants, as well as tenants seeking lease renewals, to submit to a drug test. Although drug testing tenants has great potential legal and ethical problems, no landlords have yet been sued. In all likelihood this will change. Legal literature has addressed how federal laws may affect drug testing in both public and private housing complexes. This Article discusses the rights of tenants and their families to privacy under the common law, and whether drug testing may violate those rights. This Article then presents analogous law regulating employee drug testing. Lastly, the author analyzes Minnesota ‘s employee drug testing statute as a possible model for implementing a ten
