A federal law that requires prisoners, parolees, and some people on probation to submit DNA for an FBI database has been ruled constitutional in a Philadelphia appeals court.
A panel of three judges of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 that, in the interest of creating a federal database to help solve crimes, although an “ordinary citizen’s” privacy should not be invaded with required DNA submissions, criminals do not enjoy the same freedoms.