Appeals Court OKs California DNA Swabs of Felony Arrestees

A federal appeals court on Thursday upheld California's law requiring people arrested for felonies to submit samples of their DNA to police.

The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco on Thursday said a 2013 U.S. Supreme Court ruling upholding a similar law in Maryland applies to California.

At issue is a law passed by voters in 2004 requiring that all people arrested in California on suspicion of committing a felony supply a DNA sample to police by way of a cheek swab. State Attorney General Kamala Harris and other law enforcement officials say the law is a powerful tool used to solve thousands of "cold cases." The DNA sample is loaded into a state database and compared against samples collected at crime scenes.

The American Civil Liberties Union objects to DNA collection because not all individuals arrested are charged and removing the sample from the database is a lengthy and complicated process.

The Ninth Circuit appeared ready to strike down the law after hearing a first round of arguments in 2012. But before the Ninth Circuit could...