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A Square Double Helix in a Round Hole: Forensic Genetic Genealogy Searches and the Fourth Amendment
Get PDFA forensic genetic genealogy search (FGGS) involves law enforcement’s use of consumer DNA databases to generate leads to solve cold cases. As a result of more modern technological processes, the DNA profiles kept in consumer databases are far more revealing than the DNA profiles stored in the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System (CODIS). Accordingly, each DNA profile in a consumer database can be used to identify hundreds of relatives related to the DNA’s contributor.
The government’s use of consumer DNA databases to locate the perpetrators of horrific, unsolved crimes has generated fans and critics. Supporters of FGGSs argue that, in light of the hundreds of thousands of unsolved crimes, this technique should be used in the name of justice and public safety. Critics of FGGSs argue that the government’s access to this kind of information is a Fourth Amendment violation, creating nationwide privacy risks since DNA profiles from only a small portion of the population could enable the government to identify nearly every citizen.
This Note analyzes FGGSs in light of current Fourth Amendment jurisprudence. In particular, this Note examines FGGSs under the Katz v. United States framework in light of the uncertainty generated from the landmark Supreme Court decision of Carpenter v. United States. Ultimately, this Note concludes that the Katz framework cannot provide a satisfactory answer for the constitutionality of FGGSs and that state-based positive law fails to provide a workable regulatory framework for FGGSs.
This Note proposes a pragmatic compromise. Similar to the Massachusetts Forensic Science Oversight Board, other states should create interdisciplinary oversight boards to monitor the use of FGGSs at the state level. These boards can implement policy consistent with the 2019 Department of Justice FGGS interim guidelines and update their programs as the federal government develops a more robust regulatory framework to guide the use of this novel and powerful technology
Introduction
Get PDFThis article provides an introduction to the Journal of Comparative Urban Law & Policy, the Study Space Program offered by Georgia State University College of Law, and the articles resulting from the Study Space Lisbon Program
Tort Claims for the Coverup of Child Sexual Abuse: Private Litigation, Corporate Accountability, and Institutional Reform
No full textTort claims for the coverup of child sexual abuse exemplify the use of civil litigation as an effective response to serious corporate misconduct. This Article analyzes how tort claims against Catholic dioceses, the Boy Scouts of America, and USA Gymnastics empowered child sexual abuse survivors to hold powerful institutional leaders accountable for covering up and facilitating the abuse. The Article demonstrates the importance of access to civil justice when corporate interests capture law enforcement and administrative agencies, as well as the therapeutic value of the litigation process for victims of traumatic injury
The Literary Language of Privacy—How Judges\u27 Use of Literature Reveals Images of Privacy in the Law
Get PDFGeorge Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four. When we think of literary works and privacy, that is the first book that comes to mind, and the same is true for judges penning privacy law opinions too. Although the novel is notable for expressing fears of authoritarian overreach, other literary works offer judges a tool for describing the plights of parties before them—parties who seek to vindicate breaches of privacy in many different forms. Nineteen Eighty-Four particularly suits cases that challenge government surveillance or non-governmental wiretapping. References to Franz Kafka and Joseph Heller illuminate other privacy harms, such as unease with governmental collection, manipulation, and release of data. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter comments on punishment via exposure of stigmatizing information. William Shakespeare, centuries ago, spoke knowingly of the peculiar pain arising from injury to one’s reputation.
Judges have referenced all these works in majority and dissenting opinions to help make concrete the often amorphous, but still very real, damage that privacy breaches can cause. This Article organizes many of these opinions according to the type of privacy invasion and provides examples of how judges’ language can help us show why the law provides remedies, however imperfect and unevenly provided, for privacy harms
