The U.S. District Court handed Gov. Rick Scott a defeat on Dec. 31 when it struck down a law requiring drug screening of welfare recipients.

Middle District of Florida Judge Mary Scriven granted summary judgment on behalf of Luis Lebron a Navy veteran, college student and single father from Orlando. Lebron refused to submit to a drug test, arguing that requiring him to pay for and submit to one is unreasonable when there is no reason to believe he uses drugs. Lebron was represented by the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida.

Scriven wrote that the court "finds there is no set of circumstances under which the warrantless, suspicionless drug testing at issue in this case could be constitutionally applied."

Scott's 2010 campaign promise to enact the drug tests is one of dozens of promises PolitiFact Florida is tracking on our Scott-O-Meter. In another promise related to welfare, we gave Scott a Promise Broken for failing to enact more stringent standards related to work requirements for welfare.

But it is Scott's promise about drug testing that has drawn more attention. In a TV interview while campaigning in October 2010, Scott said: "If you go apply for a job today, you are generally going to be drug tested. The people that are working are paying the taxes for people on welfare. Shouldn't the welfare people be held to the same standard? We shouldn't have long-term welfare or someone who is using drugs or not out trying to get a job."

Scott quickly earned a Promise Kept in 2011 when he signed HB 353, which forces all people who receive welfare cash, called Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, to pass a drug test in order to be eligible for the funds. If prospective recipients failed a first test, they would lose benefits for one year. A second positive drug test would have made them ineligible for three years. The bill passed the House 78-38 and passed the Senate 26-11. There are currently about 92,000 TANF clients in Florida.

In response to the ACLU's suit, the court issued a temporary injunction to block the law in 2011. Scriven wrote in that order that the law could violate the U.S. Constitution's Fourth Amendment ban on illegal search and seizure.

"The constitutional rights of a class of citizen are at stake," Scriven wrote.

While the law was in effect from July through October 2011, about 2.6 percent -- or 108 of 4,046 people -- tested positive for drugs, the most common being marijuana.

As the law was on hold, it became the butt of a joke on The Daily Show. Comedy Central reporter Aasif Mandvi crashed a budget press conference in December 2011 to ask Scott to pee in a cup.

"You've benefitted from hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars over the years, so would you be willing to pee into this cup to prove to Florida taxpayers that you're not on drugs?" asked Mandvi. Scott did not comply.

A ruling in February 2013 from the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta affirmed the injunction.

The state continued to argue that it warranted an exception to the Fourth Amendment to ensure TANF participants' job readiness, to meet child-welfare goals and to ensure that public funds are properly used.

But in the Dec. 31 ruling, the court agreed with the 11th Circuit's preliminary conclusion, saying, "There is nothing so special or immediate about the government's interest in ensuring that TANF recipients are drug free so as to warrant suspension of the Fourth Amendment."

Scott announced Friday he will appeal the case -- which would send it back to the 11th Circuit.

"Any illegal drug use in a family is harmful and even abusive to a child," Scott wrote in a news release. "We should have a zero tolerance policy for illegal drug use in families – especially those families who struggle to make ends meet and need welfare assistance to provide for their children. We will continue to fight for Florida children who deserve to live in drug-free homes by appealing this judge's decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals."

The court's ruling makes permanent an injunction that halted drug testing for welfare recipients. We'll continue to watch the case, but for now we say Promise Broken.