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Reason
Reason
Politics
Eugene Volokh

No Search Warrant for Lawful Gun Owner's DNA in Prosecution of Felon Who Was Fighting with Him

From a decision by Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui (D.D.C.) in In re: Search of One Device and Two Individuals (decided last month but just released Tuesday):

The videos [of the arrest] showed the defendant and [redacted] on top of each other, falling down the stairs while being tackled by police officers. While they all were tumbling down, a gun fell from their area. Defendant's [redacted] exclaimed right away that the gun was [redacted]. The gun was in fact registered to [redacted] and [redacted] had a license to carry it.

The underlying criminal prosecution of the defendant was for that defendant's allegedly possessing a firearm as a felon, but the government applied for a search warrant seeking, among other things, [redacted]'s DNA, which in context appears to be the DNA of the person who was fighting with defendant. (As is often the case with opinions that contain multiple redactions, one needs to guess at what each redaction relates to.)

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