ACLU CHALLENGES REQUIRED DNA SAMPLES FROM ARRESTEES

Wired - California law requiring the authorities to take a DNA sample from every person arrested on felony accusations was challenged in federal court as an unconstitutional privacy breach. A lawsuit, filed by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of two Californians who were arrested and released, seeks to overturn a voter-approved law that became effective this year. Proposition 69 requires detainees to provide a saliva or sometimes a blood sample upon felony arrest. The sample is stored in state and FBI databases, even if the arrested person is never charged or convicted of a crime. The challenge, if successful, threatens to derail similar laws in other states. . . 10 other states have such statutes. . . . The ACLU says DNA sampling is different from the compulsory fingerprinting upon arrest that has been standard practice in the U.S. for decades. A fingerprint, for example, reveals nothing more than a person’s identity. But much can be learned from a DNA sample, which codes a person’s family ties, some health risks, and, according to some, can predict a propensity for violence.