Libertarian Walker Chandler, a candidate for lieutenant governor in Georgia last November, submitted to the state's new mandatory drug test for all candidates for public office under protest. Then he sued. After losing in federal district and appeals courts, Walker, an attorney who is representing himself, filed a petition for certiorari to the U. S. Supreme Court, arguing that the Georgia law forced him to relinquish his constitutional rights to privacy and against self-incrimination in order to exercise another, namely the right to run for public office. To the amazement of some court watchers, the Justices, who have previously authorized drug tests by government employers only where national security or public safety is at stake, granted review. Walker argued his case before the high court on Jan. 14.

Newly installed County Commissioners in Bonner County, Idaho, home of Lake Pend Oreille and the resort town of Sandpoint (about 70 miles northeast of Spokane) have scrapped the county's Building Code and fired all eight employees of the county Building Department, along with the Solid Waste Director and several other public trough-feeders. The new commissioners promised voters in November that if elected they would rid the county of intrusive and unnecessary bureaucracies. Dumbfounded statists predict plagues and famines will befall the county . . .

In the 28 states that allow partisan registration, the number of Libertarians grew by 49% in the past two years, according to the latest issue of Ballot Access News, a San Francisco-based publication that tracks election and registration data. "This is the most rapid, sustained growth in registered voters in our history," said the party's national director, Perry Willis. The Libertarian growth rate easily outpaced that of the Democratic Party (which grew by an anemic 6.3%), and the Republican Party (up just 9.9%). The number of registered Libertarians now stands at 162,545, up from 109,000 in 1994.