Wainwright v. Superior Court

In Wainwright v. Superior Court (2000) 84 Cal.App.4th 262, mother made various allegations that father was an unfit parent, including claims that father had grown marijuana in early 1995 and had been convicted of possessing a large quantity of marijuana sometime before 1995. Mother also asserted that their minor son had returned from visits with father in 1997 smelling of marijuana and talking about watering plants on father's farm. Father denied mother's allegations. Mother requested drug testing of father, and father objected. Mother asserted that drug testing was authorized by the Family Code's provision that the court shall consider a parent's "habitual or continual illegal use of controlled substances" in awarding child custody. (Fam. Code, 3011, subd. (d).) The trial court ordered father to submit to a hair drug analysis. The court found that section 3011, subdivision (d) authorizes drug tests, and that the interests of a child outweigh the privacy interests of a parent suspected of drug use. The Wainwright court vacated the trial court's order and held that a family court's power to require "independent corroboration" before considering allegations of a parent's drug or alcohol abuse does not authorize the court to order drug testing. (Fam. Code, 3011, subd. (d).) "Interpreting section 3011, subdivision (d) to permit court-compelled drug testing in child custody disputes would present serious constitutional concerns. Governmentally compelled drug testing implicates the federal and state right to be free of unreasonable searches and seizures, and the state right of privacy. (U. S. Const., 4th Amend.; Cal. Const., art. I, 1, 13; Loder v. City of Glendale (1997) 14 Cal.4th 846, 876, 896, 927 P.2d 1200 . . . .)" ( Wainwright v. Superior Court, supra, 84 Cal.App.4th at p. 267.)