Mayfield v. Dalton

John Mayfield and Joseph Vlacovsky (plaintiffs) served in the United States Marine Corps. The Department of Defense had a program that collected and kept blood and tissue samples of all active-service military members for future use in DNA analysis. Mayfield and Vlacovsky refused to comply with the program and to produce the required specimens. Mayfield and Vlacovsky claimed that the program violated their Fourth Amendment rights and feared that the samples could be used against them in the future to discriminate in employment or insurance based on hereditary conditions. Mayfield and Vlacovsky sued the government (defendant). The district court sided with the government at summary judgment. Mayfield and Vlacovsky appealed. During that period, Mayfield and Vlacovsky honorably left active service. Moreover, the program changed in two ways relevant to the challenge: the retention period for the samples was reduced from 75 years to 50 years, and donors could request to have specimens destroyed after their military obligations ended. The government then claimed that the challenge was moot because Mayfield and Vlacovsky never actually produced the specimens. Mayfield and Vlacovsky countered that because they were contractually required to remain in the Marine Corps reserves, there was a chance they would eventually need to comply with the program.