An

Open Letter to Republican State Legislators on the 2013-2015 Biennial Budget and Automatic Collection of DNA
Hand-delivered to Key Republican Leadership, June 18th, 2013 Esteemed Representatives: Recently we have been impressed and gratified to see eleven assemblymen taking a bold, public stand on the 2013-2015 biennial budget. While still far from perfect, this budget has been significantly improved in at least some respects from what was originally proposed, in large measure thanks to the dedication and tenacity of those eleven men and their willingness to make their concerns known. Such individuals are doing the difficult, principled work we sent them to Madison to do. Wisconsin will benefit from their efforts to curtail new spending and deliver meaningful tax reduction. Regrettably, the budget currently retains serious flaws. Among them are non-budgetary items that would struggle to pass if presented as standalone bills. Such is the case with automatic collection of DNA on arrest. A significant and troubling expansion of the powers of government, it threatens the constitutional and civil rights of all Wisconsinites. The eleven budget hawks noted above responsibly raised this same issue in relaying their own concerns. We stand fully behind them. Here are just a few key reasons why automatic collection of DNA on arrest must be stricken entirely from this biennial budget.

DNA IS NOT SIMPLY A MODERN-DAY FINGERPRINT

DNA is unique genetic code, the extraordinarily detailed building blocks that make each of us who we are and distinguish us from all others. Government has in the last week been proven entirely unable or unwilling to constrain itself in the collection and use of our personal information. Respectfully, why would we trust it to stay on the straight and narrow in collecting and warehousing the most deeply intimate information about our individual personhood? The potential for abuse boggles the mind, particularly with technological advances in DNA manipulation and a growing interconnection of multiple levels and types of databases. If DNA evidence is left behind at a crime scene or on the person of a victim, law enforcement can and should collect it. However, the profound nature of a DNA sample permits the state access to an array of personal information well above and beyond anything pertinent to any crime of which the person is accused. This fact raises complex ethical issues that separate DNA entirely from standard fingerprinting. However convenient automatic DNA collection on arrest might be for the state, it is an intrusion and an infringement on the privacy and liberty of the free citizens the state is intended to serve.

AUTOMATIC DNA COLLECTION UNDERMINES AMERICAN JURISPRUDENCE

In fact, automatic collection of DNA on arrest thoroughly compromises the structural integrity of two pillars of American jurisprudence: 1) Everyone is equal before the law; and 2) One is presumed innocent until proven guilty. Automatic collection of DNA on arrest in fact elevates the state above the individual citizen in the eyes of the law. As such, it also enables the state to treat citizens as guilty until proven innocent. Both trends are an abomination. Particularly in light of recent revelations concerning the degree to which Americans are already being wrongly surveilled and their rights violated by the federal government, Wisconsin Republicans wishing to be seen as upholders of liberty should denounce automatic collection of DNA on arrest as a travesty, for it is part and parcel of the same unhealthy, elitist mentality that our federal government has adopted in relationship to citizens.

AUTOMATIC DNA COLLECTION VIOLATES 4TH AMENDMENT RIGHTS

The 4th Amendment to the United States Constitution ensures that citizens will remain secure in their persons and property, against unreasonable search and seizure. Reasonable search and seizure begins with constitutionally guaranteed due process not a free pass. The language of the 4th Amendment is plain: [N]o Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. In bypassing this direct prohibition by compelling individuals to surrender their DNA without a court order Wisconsin would unwittingly transform citizens into government-owned property to be tracked and managed by the state.

Property rights begin with the individual. According to natural law, each person is his or her own property and thus in ownership of him- or herself. In drafting the 4th Amendment, James Madison understood: If the state can take what belongs to the individual without, at least, a court order issued on just cause, our representative republic fails; we are not a free people. The U.S. Supreme Court has now ruled in the case of Maryland v. King and deemed automatic collection of DNA constitutional. We would caution you against using that ruling as justification. The same high court has recently proven that it can get other matters of constitutionality very wrong indeed. Wisconsin, by contrast, must get it right. In the courts minority dissent on King, Justice Antonin Scalia crystallizes the travesty of the majority opinion: Make no mistake about it: As an entirely predictable consequence of todays decision, your DNA can be taken and entered into a national DNA database if you are ever arrested, rightly or wrongly, and for whatever reason. He further asserts: I doubt that the proud men who wrote the charter of our liberties would have been so eager to open their mouths for royal inspection.

AUTOMATIC DNA COLLECTION VIOLATES 5TH AMENDMENT RIGHTS

Without constitutionally guaranteed due process, the state can compel a citizen to render his or her unique genetic code. As Justice Scalia observes, that code can ultimately be used against the citizen in court, forcibly placing that citizen into the uncomfortable and unconstitutional position of testifying against him- or herself. Please explain to us how this reality does not directly violate the 5th Amendment, when it states: No person shall becompelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself. The 5th Amendment further protects a citizen from being deprived of property without due process of law and against having propertytaken for public use, without just compensation. What more public use is there than the states ostensible claim that DNA will help to solve and/or prevent more crimes, thereby protecting citizens? But no matter: Not only would Wisconsin citizens be forcibly deprived of their DNA but, to add insult to injury, they would also be compelled to pay a steep collection fee for the privilege. They will subsequently be saddled with the burden and likely the legal battle of having their DNA record expunged. Not a cheap prospect. How exactly does this approach equate to just compensation for property taken?

LIMITING AUTOMATIC DNA COLLECTION IS NOT ENOUGH

We have taken note of the Joint Finance Committees efforts to curtail the scope of automatic collection of DNA: limiting it to felony arrests, limiting the amount of time a sample can be held, and providing a means of expunging a sample. Sadly, its members miss the point. Any automatic collection of DNA on arrest places us on the wrong path. Too many examples demonstrate that violating constitutional and civil rights just a little bit for everyones good doesnt work. The unintended consequences and the inevitable abuses of such policy will be legion. Law enforcement we trust inform us that felony arrests are actually easier to stumble into than one might think. Yet someone arrested on felony suspicion remains precisely that: a suspect. They have not yet been formally charged. They have certainly not been convicted. And they may well be innocent of the accusations leveled. Yet, automatic DNA collection would fundamentally shift to the citizen the burden of proving his or her innocence, rather than keeping the burden on the state to prove the citizens guilt. It is claimed that automatic DNA collection will increase crime solving and prevention rates, thereby protecting the public: We understand and appreciate these intentions. But the road to hell is paved with them. Something far higher is at stake: the individual liberty upon which our system was established. Individual liberty is not safe. But if the individual does not remain free, society cannot be free. We prefer to accept the risks that come with individual liberty rather than the subjugation that comes with the so-called safety provided by the state. In point of fact, it is not your responsibility to protect us. It is your sworn oath to uphold and protect our rights. If you focus on that task, we as individual citizens will be far better able to protect ourselves. The state does not own us. We are free citizens. On your watch, will you allow Wisconsin to be infected with a disease that will compromise vital, cherished principles that keep us so? There can be no compromise on this issue. Automatic collection of DNA on arrest must be rejected outright and in full. It must be stricken from the biennial budget. Sincerely, The Undersigned

Marv Munyon Rock River Patriots Fort Atkinson, WI Kim Simac Northwoods Patriots Eagle River, WI Orville Seymer & Chris Kleismet CRG Network Wisconsin Joanne Terry Ozaukee Patriots Mequon, WI Tony Nasvik Wisconsin Faith & Freedom Coalition Hudson, WI Aaron McEvoy Young Americans for Liberty UW - Madison Steve Welcenbach Separately for each: Conservative Insurgency & Menomonee Falls Taxpayer Association Menomonee Falls, WI Ed Willing TheFoundersIntent.org Caledonia, WI Sandi Ruggles Eagle Forum of Southeast Wisconsin Menomonee Falls, WI Pete Platt Columbia County Freedom Coalition Portage, WI Michael Hintze Tea Party Patriots Wisconsin Kip Ertel We The People Sheboygan, WI David Hoffman Baldwin Tea Party Action Group Baldwin, WI Darin Danelski Lake Country Area Defenders of Liberty Oconomowoc, WI

Michael Murphy Wisconsin Liberty Movement Milwaukee, WI Edward Perkins Fox Valley Initiative Appleton, WI Oriannah Paul Sheboygan Liberty Coalition Sheboygan, WI David Stertz Fox Valley Conservative Forum Appleton, WI James Murphy Green Bay TEA Party Green Bay, WI Charles Brey United In Freedom Beaver Dam, WI Eric Shimpach Young Americans for Liberty Sauk County Baraboo, WI Joana Briggs Greendale Tea Party Greendale, WI Greg Lipovac Young Americans for Liberty UW - Oshkosh Seth Cowan Wolf River Area Patriots New London, WI Dan Curran Concerned Citizens of Iowa County Dodgeville, WI Brian Garrow THE GROUP Appleton, WI Robert & Jean Dohnal Wisconsin Conservative Digest Wauwatosa, WI Karl Koenigs Wisconsin TEA Party Committee on State Sovereignty Peshtigo, WI Ronald Zahn N.E.W. Patriots De Pere, WI

Greg Luce The La Crosse Tea Party La Crosse, WI Kirsten Lombard The Wisconsin 9/12 Project Madison, WI Jeffrey Horn Prairie Patriots Sun Prairie, WI Kim Mork Beloit Patriots Beloit, WI Todd Welch Wisconsin State Coordinator Campaign For Liberty We The People Of The Republic Dane County, WI Paul Lembrich Separately for each: Southern Wisconsin Alliance of Taxpayers, Beloit, WI & Citizens for Better Government, Janesville, WI Jon Zech Young Americans for Liberty UW - Whitewater Jane Carpenter Suburban Republican Womens Club Milwaukee, WI Andrea Lombard Sauk County Tea Party Baraboo, WI James Leist Manitowoc TEA Movement Manitowoc, WI Sally Giedd Chippewa Valley Tea Party Eau Claire, WI Jayne Gohr Mayville TEA Party Mayville, WI Georgia Janisch Rock County Voter Education Forum Janesville, WI