It isn’t often the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is unanimous on a matter involving civil liberties, let alone in lock step with the conservative U.S. Supreme Court. But such is the case with compulsory DNA samples.
The appellate court last week upheld California’s 5-year-old law allowing police to collect DNA samples from anyone arrested for a felony. Civil liberties advocates who had challenged the law were predictably dismayed, but the court made the right call.
As the U.S. Supreme Court earlier ruled in a similar case in Maryland, the collection of DNA samples is no more intrusive than fingerprinting suspects. And California’s statute protects the innocent by allowing people who are never charged or are cleared of charges to have their DNA expunged from the system.
DNA collection in this state alone has resulted in more than 20,000 hits in criminal cases, based on Department of Justice figures. Nationally, DNA has freed many people wrongly accused of crimes, including a number on death row. It is an incredibly valuable tool on both sides of the scales of justice. No wonder 28 states now have these statutes.
The 9th Circuit said civil liberty groups can go back to lower courts to raise narrower claims about the California law, so they probably will. But if it is struck down on a technicality, at least the Legislature should be able to fix it. The causes of public safety and justice should be well served.
