Bob CollinsThe civil liberties lawyers may be getting ready for a proposal from Wisconsin officials this week.
Under the plan, anyone arrested for a felony or convicted of a misdemeanor would immediately have a DNA sample taken.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports the samples would go to a national databank for law enforcement officials around the country to use to match evidence from crime scenes.
“They are just putting more and more people in,” Chris Ahmuty, executive director of the Wisconsin American Civil Liberties Union, said. “Where does it stop?”
The Wisconsin plan is more severe than the one already used in Minnesota. Here, DNA samples are taken upon conviction.
That’s a plan that has already survived a civil liberties challenge. In January, the state Supreme Court upheld the Minnesota law.
Justice Christopher Dietzen wrote in his opinion that people convicted of a felony “do not enjoy the absolute liberty to which every citizen is entitled.”
Under the Wisconsin plan, neither do people who are charged with one.
