WIRED Article Features Public Records Lawsuit Filed By CJ Griffin
An article by WIRED, “Police Used a Baby’s DNA to Investigate Its Father for a Crime” discusses a lawsuit filed by CJ Griffin, Director of the Justice Gary S. Stein Public Interest Center at Pashman Stein Walder Hayden, on behalf of the New Jersey Public Defender’s Office and the New Jersey Monitor. The lawsuit alleges that police obtained a blood sample from New Jersey’s newborn screening program to perform a DNA analysis to link the father of the baby (who is now elementary school age) to a crime. The lawsuit was filed after the state declined to answer the request by the Office of the Public Defender and the New Jersey Monitor pursuant to the Open Public Records Act for information on how many times police had asked for newborn screening samples and which law enforcement agencies made the requests.
The article discusses the implications on the right to privacy and surveys other states policies, noting New Jersey stores the blood samples for 23 years before destroying them. The lawsuit is currently pending and will be decided in October, but in the interim, it has drawn widespread media attention.
To view the article WIRED click here
