The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has ruled in a 2-to-1 decision that federal prisoners can't be forced to give blood samples for the federal DNA registry. In so doing, the panel overruled another Ninth Circuit case from just eight years ago. The dissenter this time was Judge Diarmuid O'Scannlain of Portland.

The Ninth isn't going to regain any of its lost friends with this one. What's next -- no fingerprints, either?

I wonder if it would be o.k. if the prison collected the blood samples only from inmates who were already bleeding. That can be arranged.

Hey, maybe they could use those old punch-card voting machines...