On Monday, the Supreme Court, in a sharply divided decision gave the police the right to collect DNA samples from any suspect arrested for a serious crime. The decision endorses a practice followed currently by over 25 states and the federal government.
Chris Christie the Governor of New Jersey signed a new law in 2011 that mandated that suspects arrested for certain types of crimes must submit to a DNA swab test to be put into federal and state databases.
If the charges against the suspect are dismissed at a later date, the sample of DNA can be destroyed.
The justices on the country’s highest court differed on how big of a step the law took. Justice Anthony Kennedy said taking a DNA sample was the same as any normal booking procedure of fingerprinting and taking photos is reasonable under the Constitution’s Fourth Amendment.
However, the four justices who dissented said the highest court had allowed a major change in the powers the police have, with Antonin Scalia, a conservative justice, predicting limitations allowing just serious crimes would change and allow others that were less.
Scalia added that after today DNA can be taken and put into a national database if someone is arrested rightly or wrongly.
He said it would help solve some crimes that have been unsolved, but so would taking a DNA sample from passengers flying or taking a child’s DNA when they start school.
One state attorney general said that nothing can stop his state from taking DNA collection and expanding it to cover even lesser crimes such as shoplifting.