Author granted license

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2005

ISSN

1073-1105

Publisher

American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics

Language

En-US

Abstract

An increasing number of states are enacting laws authorizing the forcible taking and analysis of DNA from certain categories of arrestees. For example, California's Proposition 69 requires state law enforcement officials to obtain DNA samples from certain arrestees. By 2009, Proposition 69 will require a DNA sample from every adult arrested for or charged with a felony. This article addresses the constitutionality, under the Fourth Amendment, of taking DNA samples from persons subject to arrest. In particular, the article focuses on the statutes of Virginia and Louisiana, which have authorized DNA sampling of persons arrested for violent crimes and sex offenses, and examines whether these laws are consistent with the Fourth Amendment's "special needs" doctrine as outlined by several Supreme Court rulings.

The thesis of the article is that forcibly obtaining DNA from an arrestee violates the Fourth Amendment. There is little doubt these intrusions are searches under the Fourth Amendment. Moreover, I argue that this type of search cannot be upheld under the Supreme Court's special needs cases because obtaining a DNA sample is directly designed to promote the state's interest in solving crimes.

Find on SSRN

Share

COinS
 
 

To view the content in your browser, please download Adobe Reader or, alternately,
you may Download the file to your hard drive.

NOTE: The latest versions of Adobe Reader do not support viewing PDF files within Firefox on Mac OS and if you are using a modern (Intel) Mac, there is no official plugin for viewing PDF files within the browser window.