Aggregated News

A federal judge refused Wednesday to block a voter-approved California law requiring anyone arrested on a felony charge to provide DNA samples, saying genetic information is similar to fingerprints and helps police solve crimes.

U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer of San Francisco rejected an American Civil Liberties Union request to halt enforcement of the law, which took effect in January, while a lawsuit that the group filed proceeds. He said the ACLU is unlikely to prove that mandatory DNA samples are an unconstitutional invasion of privacy.

Police collect DNA by swabbing a person's inner cheek. A state laboratory analyzes the information and sends it to a national database that officers use when testing evidence from crime scenes.

Previously, the state collected DNA samples only from those who had been convicted of a sex crime or a violent felony. Proposition 69, approved by 62 percent of the voters in November 2004, extended the requirement to anyone arrested on a felony sex charge; starting this year, the measure required everyone arrested for a felony to provide samples.

According to state records quoted...