Guilty until fourth amendment shows up

Wash. legislator to introduce DNA testing bill

TACOMA, Wash. -- Rep. Mark Miloscia, D-Federal Way, says he plans to introduce a bill in the 2009 Legislature that will put the state on the same page with the federal government on the subject of DNA testing.

Your right to be secure in your person and your papers includes your DNA. The police may take "non-intimate" body samples from you. These include samples of hair, fingernail or toenail scrapings, and some external body swabs.

However, you cannot refuse to be fingerprinted because it is considered non intimate. Unfortunately we have a long line of prescient set out before now that eviscerates your ability to refuse fingerprinting.

Additionally because of Terry v. Ohio you can be frisked without arrest.

Fingerprints and frisking literally exist on the edge of personal and public space. Personally I argue that subpoena /should/ be required as in order to do either, but that is another subject entirely.

Obtaining DNA is about as intimate as you can get, thus requiring a subpoena to protect against unreasonable search and seizure by the fourth amendment.

Additionally it sets a prescient that can be used to further eviscerate our fourth amendment rights to privacy.

In an age where you are more likely to be jailed then you are to have a crime committed against you (thank you, drug war), this is another nail in the coffin of civil liberties. The creation of a database of citizen's DNA who haven't actually been convicted of crimes opens a door to far greater abuses.

Take for instance that now you can be required to give your fingerprints to the state if you lost your id, putting your thumb print on file for the state/federal government....

Those who fight against Real ID should be the same ones who are queasy right now.

Big Brother is still watching you and now he's cataloging your DNA

The Bill Nobody Noticed

"In April of 2008, President Bush signed into law S.1858 which allows the federal government to screen the DNA of all newborn babies in the U.S. This was to be implemented within 6 months meaning that this collection is now being carried out. Congressman Ron Paul states that this bill is the first step towards the establishment of a national DNA database."

S. 1858:
110th Congress: Newborn Screening Saves Lives Act of 2007

Purpose:

To establish, maintain, and operate a system to assess and coordinate treatment relating to congenital, genetic, and metabolic disorders.

disseminate such report on as wide a basis as practicable, including through posting on the internet clearinghouse established under section 1112.


Those with access to the database:

(b) Eligible Entity- In this section, the term `eligible entity' means--
(1) a State or a political subdivision of a State;
(2) a consortium of 2 or more States or political subdivisions of States;
(3) a territory;
(4) a health facility or program operated by or pursuant to a contract with or grant from the Indian Health Service; or
(5) any other entity with appropriate expertise in newborn screening, as determined by the Secretary.

Ron Paul says:

“Those of us in the medical profession should be particularly concerned about policies allowing government officials and state-favored interests to access our medical records without our consent … My review of S. 1858 indicates the drafters of the legislation made no effort to ensure these newborn screening programs do not violate the privacy rights of parents and children, in fact, by directing federal bureaucrats to create a contingency plan for newborn screening in the event of a ‘public health’ disaster, this bill may lead to further erosions of medical privacy. As recent history so eloquently illustrates, politicians are more than willing to take, and people are more than willing to cede, liberty during times of ‘emergency.”