Opinion ID: 152917
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Reasonable Expectation of Privacy

Text: Given the DNA Act's stringent limitations on the creation and use of DNA profiles, CODIS currently functions much like a traditional fingerprint database, permitting law enforcement to match one identification record against others contained in the database. See, e.g., Johnson v. Quander, 440 F.3d 489, 499 (D.C.Cir. 2006) (CODIS functions much like an old-fashioned fingerprint database (albeit more efficiently)); Banks v. United States, 490 F.3d 1178, 1192 (10th Cir.2007) ([Statutory] restrictions allow the Government to use an offender's DNA profile in substantially the same way that the Government uses fingerprint and photographic evidence-to identify offenders, to solve past and future crimes, and to combat recidivism.); Nicholas v. Goord, 430 F.3d 652, 671 (2d Cir.2005) ([W]e see the intrusion on privacy effected by the statute as similar to the intrusion wrought by the maintenance of fingerprint records.). It is well established that identification records of convicted felons, such as fingerprints or mugshots, are routinely retained by the government after their sentences are complete and may be expunged only in narrowly defined circumstances. See 28 U.S.C. § 534(a) (requiring the Attorney General to acquire, collect, classify and preserve  criminal identification records (emphasis added)); United States v. Coloian, 480 F.3d 47, 49-50 & n. 4 (1st Cir.2007) (discussing limited grounds for expungement of criminal records); United States v. Amerson, 483 F.3d 73, 86 (2d Cir.2007) ([I]t is well established that the state need not destroy records of identificationsuch as fingerprints, photographs, etc.of convicted felons, once their sentences are up.). Other precedents hold that the government's matching of a lawfully obtained identification record against other records in its lawful possession does not infringe on an individual's legitimate expectation of privacy. See, e.g., United States v. Diaz-Castaneda, 494 F.3d 1146, 1151-53 (9th Cir.2007) (running computerized check of individual's lawfully obtained license plate and driver's license identification numbers in government databases, which revealed information about subject's car ownership, driver status, and criminal record, was not a search under the Fourth Amendment); Willan v. Columbia County, 280 F.3d 1160, 1162 (7th Cir.2002) (police query of FBI's computerized national crime records database to reveal record of mayoral candidate's earlier conviction in another state was not a Fourth Amendment search). These long-standing practices and precedents on the retention and matching of offenders' identification records inescapably inform a convicted offender's reasonable expectation of privacy with respect to his or her DNA profile. As with the matching of records in a fingerprint database, the government's use of CODIS to match Boroian's profile against other profiles in the database is limited to a comparison of the identification records already in its lawful possession and does not reveal any new, private or intimate information about Boroian. Moreover, the government's comparison of Boroian's DNA profile with other profiles in CODIS is precisely the use for which the profile was initially lawfully created and entered into CODIS under the DNA Act. Boroian suggests that the government does not need his DNA profile for identification purposes because it already has other means of identification, such as his fingerprints and social security number. However, the fact that the government may lawfully retain and access these more traditional means of identifying Boroian only emphasizes that the government's retention and matching of his DNA profile does not intrude on Boroian's legitimate expectation of privacy. At present, Boroian's DNA profile simply functions as an additional, albeit more technologically advanced, means of identification. Therefore, we join the other courts to have addressed the issue in holding that the government's retention and matching of Boroian's profile against other profiles in CODIS does not violate an expectation of privacy that society is prepared to recognize as reasonable, and thus does not constitute a separate search under the Fourth Amendment. [5] See Johnson, 440 F.3d at 499 ([W]e conclude that accessing the DNA snapshots contained in the CODIS database does not independently implicate the Fourth Amendment.); accord Wilson v. Collins, 517 F.3d 421, 428 (6th Cir.2008) (stating that claim based on the government's retention and use of DNA profile does not implicate the Fourth Amendment); Amerson, 483 F.3d at 86 (acknowledging that offenders' DNA profiles will be retained and potentially used to identify offenders after probation terms have ended, but concluding that we do not believe that this changes the ultimate analysis); see also Smith v. State, 744 N.E.2d 437, 440 (Ind.2001) (holding that the comparison of a lawfully obtained DNA profile with other DNA profiles in government database does not constitute a separate search under the Fourth Amendment and collecting other state appellate decisions in accord). Boroian has not cited, and our research has not revealed, any decisions holding to the contrary. [6]