Supreme Court Backs DNA Collection in Arrests

A divided U.S. Supreme Court ruled that police may take and analyze DNA samples from anyone arrested for a “serious offense” as part of the gathering of forensic evidence. The decision in Maryland v. King split the justices 5-4 in support of allowing DNA collection during routine police bookings.

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The American Civil Liberties Union characterized the decision “a blow to genetic privacy.” Appraising the ruling on the ACLU’s blog, Northern California staff attorney Michael Risher wrote that the ruling allows police to seize DNA of innocent Americans without a search warrant.

Scalia makes clear, says Risher, that “the majority opinion goes against decades of precedent that makes it clear that the police cannot search an individual for evidence of a crime (and that’s clearly what they are doing here) without a specific reason to think that the search will actually uncover some evidence.”

While technological limitations today may slow the development of a functional
national DNA database, Scalia writes in his dissent that the ruling would move the nation toward one. “Make no mistake about it: As an entirely...