U.S. Appeals Court: OK to check DNA of those arrested

“Liberty Upended” – Anthony Freda

Rich Lord
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

A closely divided 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has found that the collection of DNA samples from people arrested — but not yet convicted — of crimes is constitutional, in an opinion released today. (PDF – ed.)

In a precedent-setting ruling, the appeals court rejected U.S. District Judge David S. Cercone’s 2009 order finding that law enforcement could not collect DNA from Ruben Mitchell, who faces a federal charge of attempting to possess and distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine. Judge Cercone had found that requiring pre-trial detainees to submit DNA samples, which is done under the DNA Analysis Backlog Elimination Act of 2000, violates the 4th Amendment’s search and seizure rules.

In an 8-6 ruling, the circuit judges found that people who are arrested have “a diminished expectation of privacy in their identities.” Outweighing their privacy, they found, is the importance to law enforcement of correctly identifying people who are charged with crimes, determining their criminal history, potentially linking them to unsolved crimes and promptly ruling out involvement in a crime in cases in which the DNA does not match that found at the scene.