The Wisconsin Court of Appeals has issued an opinion in which it “caution(ed) circuit courts that a mandatory condition of release based solely on the nature of a charged crime without considering a defendant’s individual circumstances constitutes an erroneous exercise of discretion in setting bail conditions.” The court issued this caution in a case that challenged the practice in one Wisconsin county of imposing substance abuse treatment as a blanket condition of pretrial release in all cases in which a defendant was charged with a second or subsequent offense of operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated. The full case can be found here.

The key to this case is a finding by the court of Appeals that the trial judge’s decision was made on an evaluation of the defendant and was individualized.

Other jurisdictions also have found that conditions requiring drug testing for release imposed on an individual basis do not run afoul of the Fourth Amendment. See Oliver, 682 A.2d at 189-190; York, 892 P.2d at 814-15.

In York, the California Supreme Court upheld a decision that random drug testing was a permissible condition of release upon a court’s consideration of the specific facts and circumstances of each defendant’s case. York, 892 P.2d at 806, 816.

The District of Columbia court of appeals likewise found that a condition of release requiring drug testing for an admitted drug abuser was not an unreasonable search under the Fourth Amendment.  Oliver, 682 A.2d at 192-193.