Legal Fellow, Meese Center The police did not need a warrant to query the public consumer genetics website, as some privacy advocates and legal scholars have argued. Ashley Cooper / Getty Images
Key Takeaways
Police don’t need a warrant to collect abandoned DNA at a crime scene . and don’t need a warrant to query CODIS because it is a government database.
A criminal who leaves his DNA at a crime scene does not have standing under the Fourth Amendment to complain about what a distant relative does with her own DNA.
Law enforcement officials should not be required to obtain a warrant to search third-party genetics websites that allow for public access.