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1 1 (July 11, 2025)

handle is hein.crs/fyodna0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Congressional ~Research Service Informing the legisIative debate since 1914___________________ Advances in DNA Analysis: Fourth Amendment Implications July 11, 2025 Law enforcement has used deoxyribonucleic acid, or DNA, as an investigative tool for decades. DNA is the fundamental building block for an individual's entire genetic makeup and may be extracted from many sources, such as hair, bone, teeth, saliva, and blood. Investigators routinely compare DNA from known suspects with DNA recovered from crime scenes or victims, or look for matches between crime scene DNA and law enforcement databases of offender DNA profiles. Federal courts, including the Supreme Court, have generally upheld statutory DNA identification regimes against Fourth Amendment challenges. This Sidebar provides legal background on DNA identification and the Fourth Amendment, with particular emphasis on the 2013 Supreme Court case Maryland v. King. It then examines selected Fourth Amendment issues, including lingering questions from King that could potentially be relevant to a newer DNA investigative technique, which the Department of Justice (DOJ) has calledforensic genetic genealogical DNA analysis and searching (sometimes described as investigative genetic genealogy or forensic genetic genealogy). The Sidebar concludes with congressional considerations. Maryland v. King: the Fourth Amendment and DNA Identification The Fourth Amendment imposes limits on searches and seizures by the government. Courts have determined that a Fourth Amendment search occurs if the Government obtains information by physically intruding on a constitutionally protected area or when the government violates a subjective expectation of privacy that society recognizes as reasonable. If a law enforcement activity qualifies as a search or seizure, then the Fourth Amendment requires that it must be reasonable, which ordinarily means that the search or seizure must be conducted pursuant to a warrant supported by probable cause, with some exceptions. Congressional Research Service https://crsreports.congress.gov LSB11339 CRS Legal Sidebar Prepared for Members and Committees of Congress