The U.S. Supreme Court ruled this morning, in Maryland v. King, that it is constitutional under the Fourth Amendment’s protection against “unreasonable” searches and seizures for the state to compel collection of DNA from arrestees. The probable cause required to arrest someone under the Fourth Amendment permits fingerprinting and taking photographs during the booking process, and the Court held that collecting DNA (limited to 13 loci in supposed “junk DNA”) was not relevantly different. The decision was 5-4, with Kennedy writing for the Court and joined by Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Thomas, Alito, and Breyer. Justice Scalia dissented in his usual spirited way, joined by Justices Ginsburg, Sotomayor, and Kagan.
I may write more about this decision if I have time. In the meantime, here is a still-relevant primer I co-authored in 2004 on legal and ethical debates involving DNA and the criminal justice system (including issues related to both offender DNA databases and post-conviction access to potentially exculpatory crime scene DNA). Note that Justice Breyer (whose alignment with the "conservative" wing (sans Scalia) of the Court may surprise some), in addition to being the Court’s resident patent expert (except him to play a large role in the upcoming Myriad gene patenting decision), has been following debates about DNA and the criminal justice system for some time. He authored Chapter 2 of the book I just linked to.
Comments