Arlen Specter: “The pending legislation does not reach the critical issue; and that is, to establish a right to DNA evidence as a…”

“The pending legislation does not reach the critical issue; and that is, to establish a right to DNA evidence as a constitutional right. Congress, under section V of the 14th amendment, has the authority to legislate in furtherance of the due process clause. Congress has been very inert on establishing constitutional rights under our legislative authority under section V. We have seen the wave of Supreme Court decisions in the constitutional area--``Mapp v. Ohio,'' where the Supreme Court of the United States said it was a constitutional right not be subjected to unreasonable searches and seizures, incorporating the search and seizure provisions of the 4th amendment into the due process clause of the 14th amendment. The Supreme Court, ``Miranda v. Arizona,'' required warnings for those suspects who are in custodial interrogation. And there have been many cases where it has been up to the Court to establish the constitutional right. In the obvious landmark case, perhaps the most important case in American constitutional history, ``Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka,'' it was up to the Supreme Court to establish desegregation as a constitutional right. Action should have been taken long before by the Congress, long before by the executive branch, and long before by the State legislatures; but it was up to the Court to establish that constitutional right.”