Scott R. Williams v. Pennsylvania

The Fourth Amendment demands that warrants outline with sufficient particularity that which is to be seized and searched and also ordinarily prohibits warrantless seizures and searches. Here, law enforcement first obtained a John Doe DNA Warrant and Complaint that only included reference to genetic markers that are common to all humans, and failed to attach or reference an actual DNA profile. Decades later, after obtaining a possible DNA match based on Petitioner’s mother having provided her DNA to a private DNA genealogy company, police without a warrant obtained DNA from trash items outside Petitioner’s home. Without a warrant, police then extracted the DNA and created a DNA profile. The Pennsylvania Superior Court, in a published decision, determined that the Doe DNA Warrant and Complaint’s inclusion of generic markers common to all humans was sufficiently specific and particular and that no warrant was needed to extract and profile DNA obtained without a warrant. Both of these determinations are constitutionally unsound and present issues of first impression to this Court—issues that are likely to repeatedly occur in light of DNA advancements. THE QUESTIONS PRESENTED ARE:

1. Whether the Fourth Amendment prohibits, under the specificity and particularity requirements, a John Doe DNA Complaint and Warrant that do not include a DNA profile, and include only genetic markers common to all humans;

2. Whether the Fourth Amendment prohibits the warrantless search, seizure, and extraction of DNA and the creation of DNA profiles from.