The United States Supreme Court has said taking DNA is lawful.
In Maryland v. King, 569 U.S. 435 (2013), the United States Supreme Court decided that "when officers make an arrest supported by probable cause to hold for a serious offense and bring the suspect to the station to be detained in custody, taking and analyzing a cheek swab of the arrestee's DNA is, like fingerprinting and photographing, a legitimate police booking procedure that is reasonable under the Fourth Amendment."
A Former Marine Didn't Want the U.S. Government to Have His DNA
In March 2017, our firm was hired by a former Marine who had been NJP'd and administratively separated following a period of unauthorized absence. When he was placed into the Navy Brig initially, his charges including Desertion under Article 85, UCMJ. Since Desertion, unlike Unauthorized Absence under Article 86, UCMJ, is considered a felony, the brig took his DNA and submitted it to the United States Army Criminal Investigative Labratory for analysis and entry into the FBI's Combined DNA Index System, or CODIS.
IT TOOK A YEAR, BUT OUR CONSTANT PERSISTENCE PAID OFF!
After numerous letters and phone calls, fighting the bureaucratic machine, we finally received confirmation that our client's DNA was removed from CODIS!
