When Gov. Rick Scott first ran for office in 2010, he vowed that one way he would save taxpayers money would be to require welfare applicants to undergo tests.

"If you go apply for a job today, you are generally going to be drug tested," Scott said then. "The people that are working are paying the taxes for people on welfare. Shouldn't the welfare people be held to the same standard?"

At first, it seemed like Scott would keep that promise. The Florida Legislature embraced the idea, and Scott signed it into law on May 31, 2011. But almost four years later, Scott has given up following repeated defeats in federal courts.

"It does make you think that at least some of the motivation was probably political," said University of Central Florida political science professor Aubrey Jewitt. "From a legal constitutional standpoint, it was on shaky ground when they passed it, and I think they knew that."

PolitiFact Florida, which tracks Scott's campaign promises, rates promises based on outcomes rather than intentions. Using that metric, Scott's pledge rates Promise Broken.

The drug testing promise was among several conservative promises Scott made during his first race that have ultimately failed, such as bringing Arizona's immigration law to Florida, banning embryonic stem cell research and more stringent work standards for welfare recipients.

Florida's attempt to drug test welfare recipients started when Scott signed HB 353, which required that people who received welfare cash -- called Temporary Assistance for Needy Families -- first pass a drug test. (About 83,000 receive TANF in Florida.)

The ACLU of Florida filed suit challenging the law on behalf of Luis Lebron, a Navy veteran, college student and single father from Orlando. Lebron refused to submit to a test, arguing that requiring him to pay for and submit to one was unreasonable when there was no reason to believe he uses drugs.

In October 2011, U.S. District Court Judge Mary Scriven sided with Lebron and issued a temporary injunction blocking the law. She concluded the law could violate the Constitution's Fourth Amendment ban on illegal search and seizure.

During the few months the the law was in effect -- July to October 2011 -- about 2.6 percent of applicants tested positive for drugs, the most common being marijuana. That means 108 of 4,046 tested positive.

While the law was on hold, it drew national attention when Comedy Central reporter Aasif Mandvi, who crashed a December 2011 press conference to ask Scott to pee in a cup. Scott did not comply.

As Scott continued to lose in court, he remained steadfast in support of the policy. "Welfare is taxpayer money to help people looking for jobs who have children. Drug use by anyone with children looking for a job is totally destructive," Scott said in a statement in 2013.

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 were properly used.

But the courts rejected that argument and struck down the law. In a federal court appeals ruling in December 2014 Judge Stanley Marcus, who was first appointed to the bench by President Ronald Reagan, concluded that "citizens do not abandon all hope of privacy by applying for government assistance."

As the state reached the deadline to file another challenge, Scott's support reached its limit.

"We chose not to appeal this case," Scott spokeswoman Jackie Schutz told PolitiFact Florida. "The governor is continuing to protect Florida children any way he can and create an environment where families can get jobs so they are able to pursue their dreams in safe communities."

The legal rulings have been watched closely, both nationally and in other states.

Georgia, for example, had passed a similar law but didn't implement it largely because of the Florida rulings, said Elizabeth Lower-Basch, an expert on welfare at CLASP, an organization that advocates for low-income people

"Overall, the evidence is that these programs do not save money, because you need to screen and test a lot of clients in order to catch a few who are using, and because TANF benefits are so low that there is relatively little savings from cutting people off," she said.

The tab for attorneys both inside and outside government reached at least $307,000, according to numbers from the Florida Department of Children and Families.

Some continue to defend the policy of drug testing. 

"Florida had the best policy," said Robert Rector, an expert at the conservative Heritage foundation who helped craft the 1996 welfare reform law. "Other states have been frightened off by this."

Though Scott failed to deliver on his welfare drug testing promise in the courts, it was popular with voters.

A 2011 poll by Quinnipiac University showed that 71 percent of Floridians — including 90 percent of Republicans — supported the drug testing law, even while Scott's overall approval rating was 37 percent.

"It was always a favorable political issue for him. Welfare recipients are never popular with voters," said Florida Atlantic University political science professor Kevin Wagner.