Lawsuit over baby blood samples to resume after settlement talks break down

The suit alleges that the state’s retention of baby blood samples for purposes other than disease screening violates the Fourth Amendment. (Getty Images)

Plaintiffs in a class-action lawsuit seeking to bar the state from retaining blood drawn to test newborns for disease asked a federal judge Tuesday to end a pause in the case amid a breakdown in settlement talks, according to court filings.

The request to resume the case comes three months after the parties said they were engaging in settlement talks over a longstanding screening program meant to identify scores of rare and potentially deadly conditions in newborns. The program has drawn controversy over other uses officials have found for the blood samples.

“I was hopeful that we could reach an agreement that would respect the rights of babies born in this state, but New Jersey still refuses to ask parents for consent to keep baby blood after the initial screening is done,” Hannah Lovaglio, one of the lead plaintiffs, said in a statement.

The Institute for Justice, a public-interest, libertarian law firm, filed the lawsuit in November.

In 2022, the Office of the Public Defender revealed that the New Jersey State Police used years-old blood drawn for the screening program to aid a criminal investigation.

Lacking probable cause for a warrant, the State Police subpoenaed the testing program to obtain the blood sample of a child whose father was suspected of committing the assault. DNA analysis of the blood was used to obtain a warrant for the father’s DNA, and he was later charged with a 1996 sexual assault.

A public records lawsuit lodged by the Office of the Public Defender and the New Jersey Monitor later revealed the newborn screening laboratory received five subpoenas from four law enforcement agencies over a period of roughly five years.

The class-action suit alleges that the state’s retention of dried blood used in the screenings — the samples can be retained for up to 23 years — and the use of that blood for purposes other than disease screening violate privacy protections under the Fourth Amendment.

It asks that the courts bar the state from retaining newborn blood after disease screenings are concluded unless officials inform parents of how the blood will be used and obtain their informed consent to retain it.

The Office of the Attorney General declined to comment.

The plaintiffs asked the court to set a June 25 deadline for the state to respond to their complaint, a timeline they said state attorneys did not object to.

“New Jersey had the opportunity to fix this problem without litigation. Instead, they’ve continued to operate under the flawed belief that these baby blood samples belong to the state, not the children from whom they’re taken,” said Christie Hebert, an attorney for the Institute for Justice.

The post Lawsuit over baby blood samples to resume after settlement talks break down appeared first on New Jersey Monitor.