THE ROBING ROOM

Recently had two cases (Stewart and Soto -- No. 07-1245) reversed by First Circuit. Judge Young refused to force defendants to submit DNA samples based on privacy concerns. The court then discounted each of these interests, concluding that 1) the programmatic collection of DNA has little connection to the supervision of probationers; 2) the government's interest in deterring crime through the DNA program was speculative at best because Stewart's crimes were non-violent property crimes; and 3) the government's general interest in solving crimes should not be given 'overmuch weight' in the analysis. The First Circuit ruled in Weikert and concluded that the government has 'important interests in monitoring and rehabilitating supervised releasees, solving crimes, and exonerating innocent individuals' through use of the CODIS database. Reversed.