Supreme Court Affirms DNA Collection At Time of Arrest

Taking a DNA sample is a legitimate booking procedure and is reasonable under the Fourth Amendment the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a decision issued Monday.

The 5-4 decision upheld a 2009 Maryland law that allows police officers to collect DNA without a warrant from people arrested for certain crimes.

“Taking and analyzing a cheek swab of the arrestee’s DNA is, like fingerprinting and photographing, a legitimate police booking procedure that is reasonable under the Fourth amendment,” Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in the majority opinion.

In addition to Kennedy, Chief Justice John Roberts and associate justices Clarence Thomas, Stephen Breyer and Samuel Alito voted in the majority, according to NPR.

The dissenting opinion, written by Justice Antonin Scalia, was a sharp warning about what DNA collection would mean for the future of privacy.

“Make no mistake about it: because of today’s decision, your DNA can be taken and entered into a national database if you are ever arrested, rightly or wrongly, and for whatever reason,” he wrote.

Scalia, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagen were the dissenting justices.

The Supreme Court decision overturns a 2012 Maryland Court of Appeals decision that said DNA collection that led to the arrest of convicted rapist Alonzo King violated the Fourth Amendment because there was no warrant and there was no reason to suspect King in the crime for which he was ultimately convicted.

When the state Court of Appeals threw out King's conviction, law enforcement officials across the state spoke out in favor of the DNA collection law. 

“These DNA hits enable law enforcement to apprehend repeat offenders that prey upon our citizens, thereby making our communities safer for everyone,” Montgomery County police Chief J. Thomas Manger said.

Click here to read more from Patch on the state appeals court ruling.

The Supreme Court heard the case in February.

Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley on Monday praised the Supreme Court decision.

"DNA collection has been a very effective new tool in our efforts to save lives by reducing violent crime and resolving open investigations," O'Malley stated in a release. "I’d like to thank Attorney General Doug Gansler, Deputy Attorney General Kay Winfree, and the capable appellate attorneys of the Attorney General’s Office of Maryland. Together, we will continue employing innovative and meaningful strategies to reduce crime, including using DNA, so that we can take violent offenders off the streets and protect our families and children."

In a blog on Patch, Col. Marcus Brown, superintendent of the Maryland State Police said that the Maryland Chiefs of Police Association supported the legislation, of which, he said, "we are nowhere near reaching its full potential as a crime fighting tool."

Maryland is not alone in its DNA collection practices. According to NPR, the federal government and 28 states also have laws that allow DNA to be collected from suspects when they are arrested.