Governor Susana Martinez is an advocate of Katie’s Law, which was named after slain NMSU student Katie Sepich, and which allows police to take DNA samples from those arrested for crimes, but who have not yet been convicted. She therefore filed this amicus brief at the Supreme Court to support Maryland’s version of the law.
This morning, the Supreme Court upheld the law against a Fourth Amendment challenge in Maryland v. King. Justice Kennedy wrote the majority opinion, being joined by Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Thomas, Breyer, and Alito. Justice Scalia wrote a dissenting opinion, in which he was joined by Justices Ginsburg, Sotomayor, and Kagan.
UPDATE: For more on this story, including Governor Martinez’s reaction, Milan Simonich has this post on his blog for the El Paso Times.
