People v. Peppers

This garden-variety drug case raises a fourth amendment question that has commanded the attention of federal and state courts across the nation. The same answer keeps coming up — the government can require a convicted felon to undergo a blood or saliva test for submission to state and national DNA databanks without individualized suspicion that the felon has committed some other crime. That is our answer in this case.

Following a bench trial, defendant Willie Peppers was convicted of possession of a stolen motor vehicle and possession of a controlled substance. The trial court sentenced…