WASHINGTON – The conflict between personal privacy and crime-solving technology tore at the U.S. Supreme Court yesterday as justices considered whether the Fourth Amendment permits police to take DNA samples from arrestees who have not been charged with or convicted of a crime.
The justices appeared unusually burdened by the gravity of the issue. At one point Justice Samuel Alito Jr. said he believed the case before them, Maryland v. King, 12-207, was "perhaps the most important criminal procedure case that this court has heard in decades."
