Maryland v. King: the Supreme Court Fails the Fourth Amendment Test
At argument, Justice Samuel Alito called Maryland v. King, in which the Supreme Court just ruled that states may collect DNA from people when they are arrested, “perhaps the most important criminal procedure case that this Court has heard in decades.” He’s right, and too bad for the rest of us. When Tea Party Sen. Ted Cruz and the New York Times both conclude that a decision was wrong-headed, and when the American Prospect and the Committee for Justice nod in agreement, you can be pretty sure that the Supreme Court’s choo-choo has gone off the rails. The dispute between Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing for a majority of five, and Justice Antonin Scalia, dissenting for the other four, will have ramifications far beyond DNA testing, affecting much of policing in the 21st century. Unfortunately, neither of them got it quite right.
