Lyle Denniston writes:
The Supreme Court, getting set for opening its new term, decided this week that it will take a serious look for the first time in nearly five decades at the constitutional privacy – or not – of individual’s blood chemistry. The justices agreed to decide whether police can order that a blood sample be taken from a suspect, without first getting a judge’s approval to do so.
It is clear, under the Constitution’s Fourth Amendment, that government analysis of an individual’s blood or other bodily fluids is a “search” that can only be conducted within limits. Indeed, the court remarked in a blood search case in 1966 that “the integrity of an individual’s person is a cherished value in our society….Search warrants are ordinarily required…where intrusions into the body are concerned.”
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