A federal appeals court recently ruled that a Florida law requiring applicants for welfare assistance to be subjected to mandatory drug testing is unconstitutional. The higher court’s ruling could impact attempts to enforce similar laws in other states.

According to a Reuters report, Florida did not demonstrate “substantial special speed” to test people who applied to the state’s Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program without having any suspicion about possible drug use. The program, which is subsidized by federal tax dollars, is meant to help people buy food and secure shelter.

In writing for the three-judge panel, Circuit Judge Stanley Marcus noted, “By virtue of poverty, TANF applicants are not stripped of their legitimate expectations of privacy. If we are to give meaning to the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition on blanket government searches, we must — and we do — hold that (the law) crosses the constitutional line.”

The court’s decision re-affirmed a previous ruling that had permanently stopped enforcement of the law, which was passed in July 2011. Under the measure, parents would have been required to pay anywhere from $25 to $45 for urine tests. The fees would have been refundable if the tests had come back negative for drug use. While the law was still in force, approximately one out of every 40 tests had registered as positive.

The decision, said the associate legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) “confirms that the Fourth Amendment applies equally to the rich and the poor.” The ACLU had previously filed suit on behalf of a U.S. Navy veteran who had sole custody of his 5-year-old son. He was denied benefits after declining to submit to a drug test.

More information about the case: Lebron v. Secretary of the Florida Department of Children and Families, 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 14-10322.