Supreme Court Weighing Genetic Privacy

This is a VERY big deal folks.

Source

Supreme Court justices are to meet privately Friday to weigh whether they will hear a major genetic-privacy case testing whether authorities may take DNA samples from anybody arrested for a serious crime.

The case has wide-ranging implications, as at least 21 states and the federal government have regulations requiring suspects to give a DNA sample upon arrest. In all the states with such laws, DNA saliva samples are cataloged in state and federal crime-fighting databases.

The issue confronts the government’s interest in solving crime, balanced against the constitutional rights of those arrested to be free from government intrusion.

The case before the justices concerns a decision in April of Maryland’s top court, which said it was a breach of the Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable search and seizure to take DNA samples from suspects who have not been convicted.

The Maryland Court of Appeals, that state’s highest court, said that arrestees have a “weighty and reasonable expectation of privacy against warrantless, suspicionless searches” and that expectation is not outweighed by the state’s “purported interest in assuring proper identification” of a suspect.

Maryland prosecutors argued that the mouth swab was no more intrusive than fingerprinting, (.pdf) but the state’s high court said that it “could not turn a blind eye” to what it called a “vast genetic treasure map” that exists in the DNA samples retained by the state.

I'm entirely against ANY form of DNA cataloguing for non violent crime. It's an insult to my freedom and privacy as a citizen to be tracked by a government agency for nothing.

What say you ATS?

~Tenth

I was not aware that this was already going on in 21 states. That is very scary.
I really think this is a bad idea.
I can see it, for rapists, child molesters and the like. But are they already doing it to the average joe? Some poor guy goes for back child support and gets swabbed?
No, I don't like that at all.

OMG my state is one of them. All the people in prisons. So they aren't doing it in the jails, but still.

reply to post by chiefsmom


It's quite startling actually.

A waste of taxpayer money as well if you ask me.

~Tenth

Double edged sword.

In one respect, it can assure justice is served and served to the right people. God knows how many people are wrongly convicted and sent to jail. I believe i saw a statistic once and it was a staggering amount.

On the other hand, you are pretty much throwing privacy out the window. What is more intimate and personal then your own DNA. Whats better then a record of everyones DNA to regulate a population?

I fear this could set a powerful precedent for further regulations regarding identification and surveillance.

Picture ID anyone?

I am undecided at this point, but I can tell you I would want my individual rights and freedoms upheld at all costs.

As I don't know as much as I should about those currently on the supreme court:
A) Do you think they will take on this issue?
B) How might they vote?

And the big government seeks yet another avenue by which to violate the rights of Americans.

Give an inch they take a 100 miles.

reply to post by tothetenthpower


Yes - a very big deal. ...Wonder how our dictionaries will define "privacy" in a few years.

Also note, things like epigenetics and microbiomes are far more individually distinct - and much more relevant to everything from disease to behavior.

At this rate there is no such thing as privacy anymore. Or rights, or freedom, damn......

I don't know how many parents are out there, but many states already have a DNA data base they have been building. .I read awhile back that the PKU tests that they give newborns are kept rather than destroyed in some places. For those unfamiliar with the PKU test, they prick the heel of the newborn and collect enough blood to soak a piece of fabric similar to a heavy cotton gauze.
The CPU that I had that bookmarked on crashed on me several months ago, sorry for no link.

Is this the next stage to fill in the gaps with people born too late to have been given this test?