Legal News

California violates privacy with DNA law, says ACLU

By Richard Binder

A three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals heard arguments Tuesday in a civil rights lawsuit filed by the ACLU aimed at striking down a voter-approved measure to collect DNA samples from anyone in California facing felony charges.

The ACLU says such DNA collection amounts to unconstitutional search and seizure since some suspects who submit to the saliva swab may ultimately be exonerated.

State Attorney General Jerry Brown has called the collection of DNA evidence "the fingerprint of the 21st century," but ACLU attorney Michael Risher countered in court that DNA tells much more about a person than a mere fingerprint. 

Judge Milan Smith said the court is bound by precedent, referring to a 2009 ruling that said police had violated the constitutional ban on unreasonable searches when they extracted DNA from a man who was under arrest - but was not suspected of any other crimes - so they could enter it into a criminal database.

Full post as published by Legal Pad | LA on July 15, 2010 (boomark / email).