WASHINGTON (AP) \u2014 A sharply divided Supreme Court on Monday said police can continue to take DNA from people they arrest without getting a warrant. The court\u2019s five-justice majority said DNA testing was a legitimate police arrest procedure, like fingerprinting.<\/p>\n
\u2018\u2018Taking and analyzing a cheek swab of the arrestee DNA is, like fingerprinting and photographing, a legitimate police booking procedure that is reasonable under the Fourth Amendment,\u2019\u2019 Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote for the court\u2019s five-justice majority.<\/p>\n
But the four dissenting justices said that the court was allowing a major change in police powers.<\/p>\n
\u2018\u2018Make no mistake about it: because of today\u2019s decision, your DNA can be taken and entered into a national database if you are ever arrested, rightly or wrongly, and for whatever reason,\u2019\u2019 conservative Justice Antonin Scalia said in a sharp dissent which he read aloud in the courtroom.<\/p>\n
At least 28 states and the federal government now take DNA swabs after arrests. But a Maryland court was one of the first to say that it was illegal for that state to take Alonzo King\u2019s DNA without approval from a judge, saying King had \u2018\u2018a sufficiently weighty and reasonable expectation of privacy against warrantless, suspicionless searches.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n