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Washington (CNN) -- The U.S. Supreme Court offered a surprising amount of concern Tuesday about states laws allowing police to collect a DNA sample of anyone arrested -- but not yet convicted -- of serious crimes.

A ruling soon on the privacy versus public safety question could have wide-reaching implications in the rapidly evolving technology surrounding criminal procedure.

Law enforcement lauds genetic testing's potential as the "gold standard" of reliable evidence gathering, especially to solve "cold cases" involving violent offenders.

But privacy rights groups counter the state's "trust us" promise not to abuse the technology does not ease their concerns that someone's biological makeup could soon be applied for a variety of non-criminal purposes.

Privacy vs. prosecution: DNA testing gets high court review

The justices raised a host of hypotheticals in their spirited oral arguments, laying out two sharply divided scenarios.

"There is something inherently dangerous about DNA collection that is not the same as fingerprinting," said Justice Sonia Sotomayor. "How far do we let the state go each time it has some form of custody over you in schools, in workplaces, wherever else the state has control over your person?"

"This is what is at stake: Lots of murders, lots of rapes that can be solved using this new technology that involves a very minimal intrusion on personal privacy," said Justice Samuel Alito. "Why isn't this the fingerprinting of the 21st century? What is the difference?"

Twenty-six states and the federal government allow genetic swabs to be taken after a felony arrest and without a warrant.

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DNA tests after arrest? Some justices not so sure

The US Supreme Court heard argument Tuesday in a case testing whether government officials can routinely collect a persons DNA at the time he or she is arrested and then use that DNA sample to try to link the individual to unsolved crimes.

At issue in the case, Maryland v. King (12-207), is whether taking a DNA sample from an arrestee without first obtaining a court-authorized warrant is an unreasonable search under the Fourth Amendment.

DNA has become an essential law-enforcement tool, not just in its ability to conclusively identify an individual but, more important, through its ability to conclusively link suspects to cold cases.

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In effect, DNA is becoming in the 21st century what fingerprinting was to the 20th except better.

But theres a problem. Unlike a fingerprint, DNA material contains a plethora of highly personal information bound within a persons genetic code. When the government seizes DNA material, it is taking control of more than just the ability to isolate an identifying pattern unique to one individual. With advances in genetic science, DNA might someday reveal information about an individuals susceptibility to future diseases and perhaps even personality traits, scientists say.

Several justices expressed concern that seizing a DNA sample from an individual to solve cold cases is a search under the Fourth Amendment. What justifies the state taking such action without a warrant?, they wanted to know.

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Katherine Winfree, Marylands chief deputy attorney general, told the justices that the state did not need to obtain a warrant to collect DNA samples from arrestees because people in police custody have already surrendered a substantial amount of their liberty and privacy.

That cant quite be right, Justice Elena Kagan countered. Assume youve been arrested for something; the state doesnt have a right to go search your house for evidence of unrelated crimes.

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Can police collect DNA when someone is arrested? Supreme Court to decide

The Supreme Court on Tuesday struggled with what one of the justices called its most important criminal procedure case in decades, whether to let police take DNA without a warrant from those arrested in hopes of using it to solve old cases.

Justices seemed conflicted over whether police have a right to take genetic information from people who have only been arrested without getting a judge's approval first, or if the government's interest in solving cold cases trumped the immediate privacy rights of those under police suspicion of other crimes.

One justice seemed to make clear what he thought. "I think this is perhaps the most important criminal procedure case that this court has heard in decades," said Justice Samuel Alito, a former prosecutor.

"This is what is at stake: Lots of murders, lots of rapes that can be solved using this new technology that involves a very minimal intrusion on personal privacy," Alito said later. "Why isn't this the fingerprinting of the 21st century? What is the difference? If it was permissible, and it's been assumed to be so for decades, that it is permissible to fingerprint anybody who's booked, why is it not permissible to take a DNA sample from anybody who is arrested?"

But Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Elena Kagan questioned how far the government can go if they decide that the police have an interest in people's DNA to help solve cases, with Roberts noting that it wouldn't take much for police to add DNA swabs to traffic stops. "Police officers who give Breathalyzer tests, they can also take a Q-tip or whatever and get a DNA sample, right?" Roberts said.

"It could be any arrestee, no matter how minor the offense," Kagan said. "It could be just any old person in the street. Why don't we do this for everybody who comes in for a driver's license because it's very effective?"

Getting DNA swabs from criminals is common. All 50 states and the federal government take cheek swabs from convicted criminals to check against federal and state databanks, with the court's blessing. But now 28 states and the federal government now also take samples from people who have been arrested for various crimes, long before their guilt or innocence has been proven.

According to court documents, the FBI's Combined DNA Index System or CODIS a coordinated system of federal, state and local databases of DNA profiles contains more than 10 million criminal profiles and 1.1 million profiles of those arrested.

In the case before the court, a 53-year-old woman was raped and robbed but no one was arrested. Almost six years later, Alonzo King was arrested and charged with felony second-degree assault. Taking advantage of a Maryland law that allowed warrantless DNA tests following some felony arrests, police took a cheek swab of King's DNA, which matched a sample from the 2003 Salisbury rape. King was convicted of rape and sentenced to life in prison.

King eventually pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of misdemeanor assault from his arrest, a crime for which Maryland cannot take warrantless DNA samples. The state courts said it violated King's rights for the state to take his DNA based on an arrest alone.

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Court Appears Conflicted Over DNA Sampling Issue

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On Tuesday, the Supreme Court will try to balance the rights of Americans who have not been convicted of a major crime to keep their DNA out of the government's hands, against the government's interest in closing cold cases and the rights of crime victims to finally see justice done.

Years ago, the Salisbury Police Department thought they had finally caught a break.

A man wearing a hat and scarf and brandishing a gun had raped and robbed a 53-year-old woman in her home and then vanished into the night. Almost six years later, Alonzo King was arrested in a nearby county and charged with felony second-degree assault. Taking advantage of a Maryland law that allowed DNA tests following felony arrests, police took a cheek swab of King's DNA which matched a sample from the 2003 Salisbury rape. King was convicted of rape and sentenced to life in prison.

But then a Maryland court said they had to let him go.

King was never convicted of the crime for which he was arrested and swabbed. Instead, he pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of misdemeanor assault, a crime for which Maryland cannot take DNA samples. The courts said it violated King's rights for the state to take his DNA based on an arrest alone. The state Court of Appeals said King had "a sufficiently weighty and reasonable expectation of privacy against warrantless, suspicionless searches."

If the Supreme Court justices rule for King, more than 1 million DNA profiles that have been stored in a federal database for matching with future crime scene evidence may have to be purged and others will never be collected, leading some repeat offenders to go free, advocates say.

"The early collection of DNA prevents crime," said William C. Sammons of the Maryland Coalition Against Sexual Assault. "Had the recidivists been identified early in their career through arrestee collection, they would not have been able to commit the bulk of their crimes."

But privacy activists see letting police use DNA information without a warrant or a conviction as another loss for American privacy, with Americans' genetic information held by the government eventually being used for other purposes, just as Social Security numbers were originally not intended to be used for identification.

"Regardless of what the government does with the DNA sample and the limits it places on the sample's use, all the highly personal data in it is in the government's possession, and outside the individual's control," said Jennifer Lynch, lawyer for the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Getting DNA swabs from criminals is common. All 50 states and the federal government take cheek swabs from convicted criminals to check against federal and state databanks, with the court's blessing. But now, 28 states and the federal government now also take samples from people who have been arrested for various crimes, long before their guilt or innocence has been proven. According to court documents, the FBI's Combined DNA Index System or CODIS -- a coordinated system of federal, state and local databases of DNA profiles -- contains more than 10 million criminal profiles and 1.1 million arrestee profiles.

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High Court takes up DNA sampling case

Marylands practice of taking DNA samples from individuals charged with felony burglary, breaking into cars or violent crimes will be on trial Tuesday when the U.S. Supreme Court takes up a request to overturn a state court decision that the law allowed an unconstitutional search.

In April, the Maryland Court of Appeals upheld the taking of DNA samples from people convicted of such crimes, but ruled that those arrested who, by law, are presumed innocent should not be required in most cases to give DNA samples.

Maryland Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler (D) said the courts decision is critical for Maryland and the other 27 states that have similar laws.

That is why 49 states and the District of Columbia have signed a friend of the court brief supporting DNA collection, Gansler said.

In todays world, where we have DNA technology, we ought to be able to use it to convict as well as exonerate its exactly like fingerprints, Gansler said.

The Maryland law, approved in 2008, strikes a balance and includes some of the most important privacy safeguards of any state in the country, said Raquel Guillory, a spokeswoman for Maryland Gov. Martin OMalley (D), who signed the legislation into law.

Under Maryland law, DNA samples cannot be tested or entered into a database unless a judge, at arraignment, agrees there is probable cause or unless the individual consents to or requests testing.

If the judge does not find probable cause, the DNA sample must be destroyed.

The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a brief critical of the Maryland law.

On its website, the ACLU said expanding DNA collection to arrestees has marginal benefit for law enforcement and is based on a theory that has no limiting principle thereby raising significant privacy concerns.

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Gazette.Net: Supreme Court takes up Maryland DNA case Tuesday

Sixty years after the discovery of DNA's spiraling, ladder-like structure first hinted at the mechanism by which life copies itself, one of the Nobel Prize medals honoring this achievement is up for sale.

Three men who played crucial roles in deciphering DNA's double helix in 1953 later received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. The family of one of those men, Francis Crick, plans to sell his medal, the accompanying diploma and other items at auction with a portion of the proceeds set to benefit research institutions in the United States and the United Kingdom.

"It had been tucked away for so long," said Kindra Crick, Francis Crick's 36-year-old granddaughter, of the medal. "We really were interested in finding someone who could look after it, and possibly put it on display so it could inspire the next generation of scientists." Francis Crick passed away in 2004 at the age of 88.

There is little precedent for this sale. Nobel medals appear to have changed hands publicly in only a couple of instances. This particular medal, like others made before 1980, is struck in 23-carat gold, and recognizes a particularly high-profile accomplishment in biology, one fundamental to modern genetics.

The auction house handling the sale, Heritage Auctions, has valued the medal and diploma at $500,000, which is "an educated guestimate," said Sandra Palomino, Heritage Auctions' director of historical manuscripts. Estimates by Heritage's in-house coin experts went as high as $5 million, Palomino said. [See Photos of Crick's Medal & Other Auction Items]

The April auction will also include Crick's award check with his endorsement on the back, the scientist's lab coat, his gardening logs, nautical journals and books. Separately, the family hopes to sell a letter Crick wrote in 1953 to his then-12-year-old son Michael, who is Kindra's father, describing the discovery's meaning. The auction house Christies, which Kindra Crick said is handling the sale, declined to confirm plans to sell this letter.

The medal was not displayed much within Crick's family. Kindra remembers that the Nobel, which she has yet to see herself, was locked in a room with her grandfather's other awards and other family heirlooms after he moved to California at the age of 60. After the scientist's wife, Odile, passed away in 2007, the medal was sequestered in a safe deposit box. Crick's children, including Kindra's father, Michael, attended the award ceremony in 1962, but saw almost nothing of the medal afterward.

Kindra plans to get a look at the medal before the auction.

"My grandfather was not the type of personality to show off," she said. "His conversation tended to be on what's next as opposed to reminiscing about the past I guess he always thought there was more to come."

Crick's family hopes to see the medal displayed publicly after its sale; however, Kindra Crick acknowledged that a public auction offered no guarantee a buyer would display the award. But she is optimistic, saying those individuals or institutions with enough interest in science to bid on the medal are also likely to display it publicly. [Creative Genius: The World's Greatest Minds]

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Nobel for sale: Medal for discovery of DNA up for auction

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Square 1 Bank Announces Credit Facility to ROI DNA

Heritage Auctions

The 1962 Nobel Prize gold medal awarded to Dr. Francis Crick for his work in the discovery of the structure of DNA will be offered by his family in a public auction in New York City on April 10.

By Wynne ParryLiveScience

Sixty years after the discovery of DNA's spiraling, ladderlike structure first hinted at the mechanism by which life copies itself, one of the Nobel Prize medals honoring this achievement is up for sale.

Three men who played crucial roles in deciphering DNA's double helix in 1953 later received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. The family of one of those men, Francis Crick, plans to sell his medal, the accompanying diploma and other items at auction with a portion of the proceeds set to benefit research institutions in the United States and the United Kingdom.

"It had been tucked away for so long," said Kindra Crick, Francis Crick's 36-year-old granddaughter, of the medal. "We really were interested in finding someone who could look after it, and possibly put it on display so it could inspire the next generation of scientists." Francis Crick passed away in 2004 at the age of 88.

The value of Nobel goldThere is little precedent for this sale. Nobel medals appear to have changed hands publicly in only a couple of instances. This particular medal, like others made before 1980, is struck in 23-carat gold, and recognizes a particularly high-profile accomplishment in biology, one fundamental to modern genetics.

The auction house handling the sale, Heritage Auctions, has valued the medal and diploma at $500,000, which is "an educated guestimate," said Sandra Palomino, Heritage Auctions' director of historical manuscripts. Estimates by Heritage's in-house coin experts went as high as $5 million, Palomino said. [See Photos of Crick's Medal & Other Auction Items]

The April auction will also include Crick's award check with his endorsement on the back, the scientist's lab coat, his gardening logs, nautical journals and books. Separately, the family hopes to sell a letter Crick wrote in 1953 to his then-12-year-old son Michael, who is Kindra's father, describing the discovery's meaning. The auction house Christies, which Kindra Crick said is handling the sale, declined to confirm plans to sell this letter.

Out of the boxThe medal was not displayed much within Crick's family. Kindra remembers that the Nobel, which she has yet to see herself, was locked in a room with her grandfather's other awards and other family heirlooms after he moved to California at the age of 60. After the scientist's wife, Odile, passed away in 2007, the medal was sequestered in a safe deposit box. Crick's children, including Kindra's father, Michael, attended the award ceremony in 1962, but saw almost nothing of the medal afterward.

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Nobel Prize medal for DNA work to be sold