dh - thanks for the reply. I concede that testing athletes for performance enhancers, pain killers, and the like is justified. I'm having trouble swallowing your Len Bias argument, though. What makes basketball so special that we should protect only possible basketball greats from shooting themselves in the foot? "That Johnson boy coulda been a great computer programmer if he hadn't OD'd on smack/shot himself in the head/drove his car off a cliff." Institute narcotics testing and a ban on driving licenses for CS undergrads? I dunthinkso.
Anyway, sorry about that...back to the subject. I'm glad to hear we agree that the idea is ludicrous. I am also hopeful that you agree with me that it ought to be illegal, whether it currently falls into the scope of the Constitution, any existing Federal laws or not. I see the situation a bit differently than "Yo, I'll give you a donut if you let me search you for weapons." More like, "Yo, you can't go into the donut shop you have breakfast at every morning, until you let me strip-search you for weapons." Even so, there are two key differences between your child's Chess club and your favorite donut shop: first, the former is funded by the government and intended to be available to "all", at least in spirit; and more importantly, the Chess club is a monopoly. You can always find another donut shop, but if you're a quiet, brainy 9th grader there's only one place you're going to go to get to play chess and meet other students like you from your school.
Sure, we can say "but only if you don't mind staying away from all substances we don't like and letting us inspect your urine on a regular basis to PROVE it" -- but we've both agreed that this is stupid. It's not doing anyone any good, unless we are specifically aiming for a society full of alienated, cynical and pissed-off people. The justices, in deciding this case, probably thought along the lines of "We need to fight the Holy Drug War, and this seems like it can slip right by the Constitution on a technicality, cool deal, let's do it!" Were I in those shoes, my line of thought would predominantly be "How can I protect as many rights as possible with this measly little amendment given to me."
Maybe that's just me. However, there is no reason for this ridiculous drug war and its rhetoric to keep advancing deeper and deeper into our collective brains. How many people are actually convinced that there are crazed marihuana fiends plotting to take over the chess club, anyway?