SAN FRANCISCO -- Calling it "an extraordinary assault" on the privacy and due process rights of Californians, the American Civil Liberties Union Tuesday filed suit in federal court to challenge Proposition 69.

Last month, 62 percent of voters approved Proposition 69, which requires the collection of DNA samples from anyone arrested on suspicion of, charged with and convicted of a felony.

The ACLU suit does not challenge the collection of DNA samples from convicted felons. As attorney Sonya Winner explains, the group wants a federal judge to declare it unconstitutional to collect DNA from felony arrestees - many of whom are never charged or convicted - and from convicted felons who "have long since paid their debt to society."

The lead plaintiff is Michael Weber, a San Francisco State University student who was one of dozens arrested during a protest in the Mission District on Nov. 3. The charges against him were later reduced to misdemeanors, but because he was arrested for a felony, he now expects to be ordered to submit a DNA sample to the state's database.

"The idea of the government having my personal genetic information strikes me as very creepy and extremely unnecessary," Weber said at a news conference this morning.

Because a majority of voters did not see Proposition 69 that way, proposition supporter Beth Pendexter predicted today that the ACLU's suit will fail.

"They're welcome to try, but we see them as circumventing the will of people who voted for one of the most aggressive crime-solving programs in the nation," Pendexter said. "We're very confident that the courts will uphold this."

Similar laws in Texas, Louisiana and Virginia have withstood court challenges, according to Pendexter.

"Courts have consistently upheld that DNA sampling is not unconstitutional," she said.