Originally Posted by
LeadSled
At lest we don't have the stormtroopers (very heavily armed) of the ATF and Homeland Security descending on us at random all over the US, even if we have been nowhere near an international border, let alone crossed one,
No question the US has some civil liberty .... ummm ... incursions of our own going on. I was only referring to the specific issue of drug and alcohol testing.
For what it's worth, the FAA here doesn't require random drug and alcohol testing of private pilots. And would likely (hopefully) be prevented from such by the fifth amendment protections against unreasonable search. Even when the police are running "safety inspection" roadblocks on the highway, I don't believe that they are able to demand an alcohol test without some element of reasonable suspicion, or probable cause.
That said, of course we've obviously come up withe some sort of rationalization which stands up in the courts to circumvent the fifth amendment in the case of pilots employed by common carriers.