Railway Labor Executives' Assoc. Brotherhood of Locomotive v. Samuel K. Skinner John H. Riley

The Railway Labor Executives’ Association (“RLEA”) appeals the district court’s order granting summary judgment to the Secretary of Transportation. RLEA argues that the Federal Railroad Administration’s (“FRA”) recently promulgated random drug testing regulations, 49 C.F.R. §§ 219.601-605 (1989), require unreasonable searches in violation of the fourth amendment. It also maintains that the new regulations violate the separation of powers doctrine because they do not fall within the FRA’s statutory authority. Finally, RLEA contends that the FRA lacked the authority to delegate to private railroads the power to conduct random drug testing. We affirm.

I

The parties ask us to decide whether random drug testing of railroad workers in safety-sensitive positions violates the fourth amendment. The Supreme Court recently decided two drug testing cases that establish the analytical framework for resolving this constitutional question. See Skinner v. Railway Labor Executives’ Ass’n, 489 U.S. 602 , 109 S.Ct. 1402 , 103 L.Ed.2d 639 (1989) (“RLEA I ”); National Treasury Employees Union v. Von Raab, 489 U.S. 656 , 109 S.Ct. 1384 , 103 L.Ed.2d 685 (1989) (“Von Raab”). We recently applied these…