SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A federal appeals court is considering one of the hottest privacy issues of the day.

On Wednesday, the judges of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will hear arguments over a California law ordering the collection of DNA samples from all people arrested for felonies.

The California electorate passed the law as Proposition 69 in 2004 and it went into effect in 2009. The collection effort is meant to help solve so-called cold cases. The California Attorney General says the state’s DNA database spits out some 425 hits per month.

The ACLU filed a lawsuit on behalf of three people arrested for felonies who were later cleared of felony charges. The lawsuit claims the law is an unconstitutional “search and seizure” of people who are presumed innocent.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.