Court Decides DNA Swabs During Arrests Are Constitutional

Maryland Vs. King Ruling: US Supreme Court Decides DNA Swabs During Arrests Are Constitutional In 5-4 Decision

Police are allowed to take DNA samples from people they arrest on charges of serious crimes, even if there are no plans to prosecute them for the offenses, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in a 5-4 decision handed down Monday.

Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote the majority opinion for the court. Also voting with Kennedy were Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Clarence Thomas, Stephen Breyer and Samuel Alito. Justice Antonin Scalia, who wrote the dissenting opinion, joined Justices Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan in the minority.

Alonzo Jay King
Photo/Salisbury Police Dept.

The case, Maryland vs. King, stemmed from a ruling by the Maryland Court of Appeals, which said that the DNA cheek swab from Alonzo Jay King obtained by the authorities in Wicomico County, Md., was unlawful. King’s DNA was taken following his 2009 arrest on assault charges, and the material linked him to an unsolved 2003 rape. King was later convicted of the rape, but Maryland’s highest court threw it out, arguing that he was subject to unlawful search and seizure.


But Monday’s ruling by the high court reversed the Maryland court’s decision, with Kennedy arguing that DNA samples are the 21st century equivalent of fingerprinting and does not constitute a violation of the 4th Amendment,.

“When officers make an arrest supported by probable cause to hold for a serious offense and they bring the suspect to the station to be detained in custody, 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,” Kennedy wrote.

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