Kate Moser reports:
In jail in San Francisco after being arrested at an anti-war rally three years ago, Lily Haskell had a decision to make.
Give a DNA sample, as felony arrestees in California must do, or refuse the cheek swab and get charged with an additional misdemeanor.
She chose the latter.
Now Haskell’s the lead plaintiff in a suit that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit is rehearing next month. It’s a test case dealing with one of the hottest Fourth Amendment issues the country faces — the expectation of privacy that people have over their DNA.
Meanwhile, waiting in the wings is the California Supreme Court’s review of a state court of appeal panel’s forceful decision finding the DNA collection unconstitutional. And the U.S. Supreme Court has telegraphed in the past month that it is likely to take up a criminal case in Maryland that raises the same question.
Read more on Law.com.