JURIST - Paper Chase: Appeals court upholds constitutionality of FBI DNA databse

[JURIST] A federal appeals court has ruled that a controversial law requiring prisoners, parolees, and others on probation to submit DNA samples to an FBI DNA identification database [AP report] in constitutional. Judge Jane R. Roth, for the US Third Circuit Court of Appeals, wrote Monday that although such an intrusion into the lives of ordinary citizens would be constitutionally invalid, taking samples from prisoners and persons under prison supervision was justified because of the assistance it could provide in investigations and the potential for protecting the innocent. The plaintiff in the case, Paul G. Sczubelek, is a former Delaware State Police lieutenant who was convicted of bank robbery in 1994 and later released on probation. Lawyers for Sczubelek say they will appeal, citing his Fourth Amendment right to be immune from unreasonable search and seizure. Read the Third Circuit opinion [PDF}. AP has more.

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