In Meza v. Department of Homeland Security, (Fed. Cir. No. 2007-3150, April 23, 2008), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld the removal of an INS criminal investigator after he allegedly tested positive for cocaine, notwithstanding contrary evidence. Because the Merit Systems Protection Board administrative judge who heard the evidence concluded that the relevant evidence supported the allegation, the court said it could not overturn the decision.
According to the decision: the employee was selected for a random drug test; when his urine tested positive for cocaine, another portion of the same sample was tested at another laboratory, using a more accurate testing method (gas chromatography); and the second portion of the urine sample also tested positive at the second lab. The agency subsequently proposed the employee
