Sharp divisions emerged among the judges of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday as a 14-judge en banc court considered whether to strike down the DNA Act of 2005, a law that allows the government to routinely collect DNA samples from arrestees for inclusion in a national database.
In United States v. Mitchell , the government is appealing a November 2009 decision by U.S. District Judge David S. Cercone of the Western District of Pennsylvania that held such DNA sampling, without a warrant, violates the Fourth Amendment.
