HB 1403 Collect DNA on Arrest moved forward yesterday, July 1 when it passed the NC House Finance Committee. This bill allows DNA to be taken on arrest without probable cause or a warrant to support the search. There were objections to the bill. Some Representatives were concerned that there was no current fiscal note which meant it was unclear whether the state could cover the cost of the new initiative. Others objected to the threat the bill poses to the constitutional rights of North Carolinians.

The bill allowing parents of students with disabilities to prevent their child from being subject to corporal punishment is scheduled to be heard in the NCGA Senate Education Committee tomorrow, June 30th at 10. Currently neither parents nor students have the right to prevent the student from being subject to corporal punishment. This bill will change that as well as requiring important reporting from school districts on their use of corporal punishment to the State Department of Public Instruction.

The N.C. House of Representatives passed HB 1682 Corporal Punishment and Children with Disabilities by a vote of 113-0 on June 10th. Should this bill pass the Senate as well, parents of students with disabilities will have the right to prevent their child from being struck at school. Currently there is no North Carolina law that affords parents or students the ability to remove themselves from being subject to corporal punishment.

HB 1682, which allows parents of students with disabilities to prevent their children from being subject to corporal punishment, was passed unanimously by the House Judiciary II Committee today. The bill also requires that school districts report the race or ethnicity, grade level, the number of students with disabilities subject to corporal punishment, and the reason for the administration of corporal punishment to the Department of Public Instruction annually.

On Tuesday, the House Judiciary I Committee voted to advance HB 1403 Collect DNA Sample on Arrest with only one Representative voting against the proposal. The bill, which would allow the taking of DNA on arrest for some felonies without a warrant, advances to the House Finance Committee. The proposal would genetically register 45,000 more North Carolinians with the state every year - thousands of them will later be acquitted or have the charges against them dropped.

The NC House Judiciary I Committee started its review of HB 1403 Collect DNA Sample on Arrest. On Tuesday, Attorney General Roy Cooper appeared before the committee in support of the bill. He encouraged the Representatives to pass the bill saying that the NC DNA database has approximately 190,000 profiles in it currently and passing this bill will expand the database by 45,000 samples per year. That's 45,000 biological samples forcibly taken from arrestees upon arrest without a warrant.

On Tuesday, the NCGA House Education Committee approved HB 1682 Corporal Punishment and Children with Disabilities. While the original bill would have prohibited the use of corporal punishment on students with diabilities, the committee was considering an amended version of the bill which will give parents of children with disabilities the opportunity to prevent their child from being subject to corporal punishment. The new version of the bill is expected to be considered by its next committee, Judiciary II on June 1st.

The North Carolina legislative session, which convened less than two weeks ago, is moving quickly this year. The Senate has already passed its budget bill, making changes to the two year budget passed in 2009. That means that the focus of the House is about to shift almost exclusively to the budget. However, before that happens, the House is set to take up two bills involving civil liberties on May 25th.

In a 357-32 vote, the House voted to offer cash incentives to states that start taking DNA upon arrest for certain crimes. If passed by the Senate, H.R. 4614 would create a dedicated stream of funding for states to access if they start taking DNA upon arrest. Many like to compare taking DNA to fingerprinting, vastly undervaluing the intrusive nature of taking the DNA as well as entering it into a database where it will be repeatedly run.

Ever since last summer, NC's Attorney General Roy Cooper has been calling for a vast expansion of NC's DNA Database. Now, the Governor has joined the call to abandon the protections of the Fourth Amendment and start taking DNA from individuals upon arrest without a warrant. It is already possible to take a DNA sample with a warrant or from anyone who gives informed consent.