This can't be good for the Fourth Amendment ...
A sharply divided Supreme Court
ruled Monday that police can take DNA from certain arrested citizens – absent a
warrant, and before a conviction is rendered.
It’s like taking a fingerprint,
Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote, The Associated Press reported.
“Taking and analyzing a cheek swab
of the [arrested party's] DNA is – like fingerprinting and photographing – a legitimate
police booking procedure that is reasonable under the Fourth Amendment,”
Justice Kennedy wrote, AP reported. Joining Justice Kennedy were Chief Justice
John Roberts and Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas and Stephen Breyer.
The four dissenting justices – Antonin
Scalia, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan – said the ruling
gave police a huge expansion of power.
“Make no mistake about it – because of
today’s decision, your DNA can be taken and entered into a national database if
you are ever arrested, rightly or wrongly, and for whatever reason,” wrote
Justice Scalia, the AP reported. “This will solve some extra crimes, to be
sure. But so would taking your DNA when you fly on an airplane … so would
taking your children’s DNA when they start public school.”
The federal government and 28 states
already collect DNA from those who are arrested. A Maryland court questioned
the legality of that allowance, however – bringing the matter ultimately to the
door of the Supreme Court.
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