When Scientists Pick a Fight with the Law

Since the times of Galileo and as recently as climate change researchers’ battles with the Bush administration, scientists have defended themselves against what they perceive to be undue intrusion into their research by government and other authorities. But rarely have scientists gone out of their way to start a fight with Johnny Law.

This dynamic seems to be changing in the field of DNA forensics. Two dozen scientists (along with several other scholars and practitioners) recently published an open letter in the prestigious journal Science that called out the Federal Bureau of Investigation for stonewalling research access to the federal DNA database. This database houses almost eight million DNA profiles used to identify unknown offenders who leave biological materials at crime scenes.

Why are scientists poking this bear with a stick? DNA evidence is particularly compelling because the chance that any two samples match coincidentally is slim to none; experts often express the probability as only one in several million. This is also why DNA is useful in exonerating individuals who are wrongly accused; testing can show that unknown samples...