Supremes Legalize DNA Swabs

The Supreme Court today in a bipartisan ruling approved allowing DNA swabs of arrested felons. Justice Scalia sided with the liberals on this. I think a lot of cold cases will be solved with this DNA database but I don't know if I think the Supremes were correct. They say it is similar to a fingerprint database but wouldn't this be a violation of the 5th.

BAD BAD BAD

Grady wrote: BAD BAD BAD

It is another step down the road. I understand that SSN's are assigned at birth. I did not have one until I got my first job with a pay stub.

The HUGE problem is this.....No warrant and before conviction.....the NO warrant is the problem.....HUGE ABUSE in the foreseeable future. JMO

I think that effectively killed civil liberties for most Americans, and clearly marks our steady march toward being a police state.

Police should be a tool for democracy - not the totality of governance.

Fingerprints and photographs are also obtained with no warrant and prior to conviction home. How is this any different than these identifiers outside of its extreme accuracy which virtually eliminates the possibility that the DNA would point an accusatory finger at anyone but the perpetrator of a crime?

PrintSmith wrote: Fingerprints and photographs are also obtained with no warrant and prior to conviction home. How is this any different than these identifiers outside of its extreme accuracy which virtually eliminates the possibility that the DNA would point an accusatory finger at anyone but the perpetrator of a crime?

That is what the anti-civil libertarians on the Supreme Court said, same as fingerprints, but to me, it seems a lot more invasive.

Plus a DNA database is easier to misuse than a fingerprint one. Want to know which diseases this guy is more likely to get?

Print.....DNA IS A SEARCH (all 9 justices agreed)...the 4th has safeguards and THIS just ELIMINATED the safeguard....Per ACLU.

It NOW allows the government to compile a national BIOMETRIC ID BASE.....legally

And I would object to such a use for the database, but IIRC, such a use was already precluded in the empowering statute. What the Supreme Court ruled is that it is not an unreasonable search to obtain DNA from someone who had been arrested after probable cause for their detentions had been satisfied which was to be used in a database to identify a single individual.

If it came to light that that database was being opened up to researchers for other purposes, then I would agree with you that it should not be allowed and that it would be an invasion of privacy to use the database for that purpose.

homeagain wrote: Print.....DNA IS A SEARCH (all 9 justices agreed)...the 4th has safeguards and THIS just ELIMINATED the safeguard....Per ACLU.

It NOW allows the government to compile a national BIOMETRIC ID BASE.....legally

Taking your fingerprints is a search too home, as is taking your photograph. All nine justices would agree with that as well. The justices did not approve random collection of DNA at a sobriety checkpoint, they approved of collecting the DNA of someone taken into custody, for which there must be probable cause, and obtaining unique identifiers which showed who it was that was in custody.