Tag Archives: Department of Justice

Get Serious: The US Department of Justice’s Amicus Brief in Haskell v. Harris

As the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit returns to the question of the constitutionality of California’s DNA database law, the United States has weighed in with an amicus brief. It is worried (or should be) that the en banc panel will take too seriously the Supreme Court’s references to “serious offenses” in Maryland v. King, the DNA-on-arrest case decided last June. The Maryland law that the Supreme Court narrowly upheld authorizes DNA collection for violent felonies, burglaries, and attempts to commit those crimes. The California law under attack in Haskell is broader, applying to all felony arrests including those that would seem rather petty to the casual observer. (The federal law is broader still, encompassing every offense, no matter how trivial, for which a person is dragged into custody.)

Consequently, it comes as no surprise that the federal government wants the Ninth Circuit to read King expansively, whereas the ACLU, which represents the plaintiffs in Haskell, is pressing for the narrowest possible reading. … [read more on FSSL]