CourtArtist.com

DNA Sampling No Different Than Fingerprinting

    In an opinion delivered by Justice Kennedy today the Supreme Court said that taking a DNA sample from a suspect is the same as fingerprinting someone upon arrest, and that the purpose is indentification of the suspect.

    “When officers make an arrest supported by probable cause to hold for a serious offense and they bring the suspect to the station to be detained in custody taking and analyzing a cheek swab of the arrestee’s DNA is, like fingerprinting and photographing, a legitimate police booking procedure that is reasonable under the Fourth Amendment," said Justice Kennedy.

    "That assertion taxes the credulity of the credulous," said Justice Scalia in a dissent delivered from the bench. "In approving that suspicionless search, the Court has cast aside a bedrock rule of our Fourth Amendment ..."

    The case is Maryland v. King

Coming Into The Backstretch ...

 ... only 28 cases remain undecided.

    Dashing hopes of a long awaited decision on the affirmative action case, Fisher v. University of Texas, argued last October the Court today announced only two opinions of less interest. At least they weren't unanimous.

 

A Day Trip to Philly

 I got a last minute call to go to Philadelphia to sketch the sentencing of abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell - a case I have not followed and therefore am thankfully unable to comment on - so I hit the road at 5:00 a.m. Arriving early I had a few minutes to do the sketch above before the courthouse openned.

 After waiting several hours in the courtroom, sketching some of the evidence collected from Dr. Gosnell's, the sentencing itself was very brief. 

You can read about it here.

Kagan's Roundup Ready and Breyer's in a Sling

 A couple sketches from the Supreme Court yesterday:

 Justice Kagan annouced the Court's unanimous opinion supporting Monsanto's patent rights on its herbicide resistant genetically altered Roundup Ready seed. 

 NYT's Adam Liptak has the story here.

 It was also Justice Breyer's first appearance on the bench since breaking his shoulder in a bicycle mishap two weeks ago.

 

Robel Philipos, Dzokhar Tsarnaev's Friend

 Robel Philipos, arrested last week and charged with making false statements, appeared before a federal magistrate in Boston. Magistrate Judge Marianne B. Bowler allowed Philipos to go free on supervised bond. The above sketch shows Philipos with his lawyers and the magistrate as well as New York sketch and pleine-aire artist extraordinaire Jane Rosenberg in the right foreground. 

Here are the rest of my sketches from today.

Funny story told to me by Jane: Philipos' parents walked out of the courthouse with a young man not Robel, probably one of his friends pictured above. The cameras waiting outside assumed it was Robel and gave chase. Meanwhile, when the real Robel came to the front entrance accompanied by his lawyers the coast was clear. By the time the press caught on he was in the back seat of a car driving away.

 

Before the Justice Take the Bench

 A little sketch, doodle really, of the Supreme Court press waiting for the Justices to come to the bench and announce the day's opinions.

 From left to right, Mark Walsh of Education Week, Marcia Coyle of the National Law Journal, the Washington Post's Robert Barnes and Adam Liptak of the New York Times.

Time for a Tricycle?

 Just kidding, I'm really very sorry to hear that Justice Breyer had fall from his bicycle over the weekend and broke his shoulder. Twice before he has had serious bicycle mishaps and has always climbed back in the saddle. I hope he continues to ride, and wish him a speedy recovery.

 

HIV, Prostitution and the First Amendment

Yesterday the Supreme Court heard arguments on whether the U.S. government can require NGO's working overseas to fight HIV and AIDS to espouse an anti-prostitution policy as a requirement to receiving funds.

The case is Agency for International Development v. Alliance for Open Scociety International.

You can read about it here.

Remind Me To Update My Will

After federal employee Warren Hillman divorced his wife Judy Maretta and married Jaqueline Hillman he never changed the beneficiary on his life insurance. When he died the approximately $125,000. benefit went to his ex-wife.

Maybe, as Justice Breyer asked, "he secretly wants to leave the insurance in the name of his first wife while pretending to the second wife it was just an oversight."

Lyle Denniston covers the argument here.

The Indian Child Welfare Act

The Supreme Court Justices had a tough time yesterday trying to balance the interests of a child, known as Baby Veronica, with the shameful history of removing American Indian children from their families. The Indian Child Welfare Act, or ICWA, enacted in 1978, gives tribes a strong role in the adoption of Indian children. 

 

    In the case of Adoptive Parents v. Baby Girl an unwed mother gave up for adoption her child fathered by a part-Cherokee father. The father had expressed no interest in the upbringing of the child until he was informed of the adoption. After being raised by its adoptive parents for about a year the baby girl was transfered to her father who won custody in federal court under the ICWA.

 

Mark Walsh has the story here.