HACKENSACK, N.J. (1010 WINS) — New Jersey police used blood samples taken from babies to investigate the crimes of family members, according to a lawsuit filed by the New Jersey Office of the Public Defender and the New Jersey Monitor.
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A state-run testing lab complied with a New Jersey State Police subpoena for a child’s blood sample, which authorities used to link the child’s father to a crime committed more than 25 years ago.
The police were able to access this information without a warrant, which the lawsuit suggests could constitute an unconstitutional search.
All babies born in the state of New Jersey are required to have a blood sample drawn within 48 hours as part of a mandatory test for genetic disorders.
These samples are processed in a state-run lab and retained by the New Jersey Department of Health for over 20 years.
If police are able to successfully subpoena this information, then every baby in the state of New Jersey is effectively being entered into a DNA database that can be used to surveill them and their family members for decades to come.
“DNA holds our sensitive personal information,” wrote the American Civil Liberties Union in a statement. “Allowing the government to access samples with such sensitive information for reasons other than public health would seriously threaten our privacy — particularly given that our DNA reveals such information not only about us, but also our family members.”
The lawsuit, filed jointly by the OPD and the New Jersey Monitor, seeks to compel the state to disclose information on the practice that both the agency and the newspaper were denied.
“Alarmed by this practice it strongly believes constitutes an illegal search, OPD seeks to learn how often State agencies are utilizing the Newborn Screening Laboratory as an investigatory tool for its prosecutions in order to sidestep the constitutional rights of defendants to be free from warrantless searches and seizures,” wrote the OPD in the lawsuit.
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