"If DNA sampling was actually like fingerprinting, [the Supreme Court's] argument might be convincing."

"But of course it isn’t. Fingerprints are a phenotype that reveals nothing except a random pattern that no two individuals share. DNA, however, is your genotype: the blueprint for your entire physical person. If the government has my fingerprints, it’s like they have my randomly assigned Social Security number. If it has my DNA, it’s like they have the entire operating system."

Harvard lawprof Noah Feldman says in "Court’s DNA Ruling Brings U.S. a Step Closer to 'Gattaca.'"

Like many, Feldman bestows admiration on the oft-scorned Scalia, who dissented. Feldman — despite the admiration — refers to the Scalia opinion as "his pungent dissent." I guess he wanted a less-common adjective to tack onto the word "dissent." What are the usual words? Stinging, sharp, pointed, biting...
But "pungent"? Doesn't that mean smelly? Feldman doesn't intend an insult, so, did he — shunning the trite — pick the wrong word? Actually, no. The (unlinkable) Oxford English Dictionary gives 6 meanings for the adjective "pungent," and they justify it as a compliment paid to a strong and well-written dissenting opinion:

1. Of pain: as if caused by a sharp point; piercing, stabbing; pricking....

2. Sharp; piercing; that has sharp points....

3. Forcefully or incisively expressed; (of argument, opinion, etc.) convincing, persuasive; sharply critical; (of censure) trenchant, biting....

1747   J. Edwards True Saints vi,   He expressed himself with that exact propriety and pertinency, in such significant, weighty, pungent expressions, with that decent appearance of sincerity.
1761   tr. C. Batteux Course Belles Lettres III. ii. v. 195   This poet is author of two satires universally esteemed the most pungent and best written in our language....
1876   Atlantic Monthly Aug. 202/2   He forced the unwilling esteem of men by his inflexible probity, his pungent logic, and his untiring industry.
1953   E. Jones Sigmund Freud I. viii. 168   She had a pungent tongue that contributed to a store of family epigrams....

4. a. Affecting the sense organs, esp. those of smell or taste, with a sharp, penetrating sensation; acrid, irritant; intensely flavoured, piquant....

5. Strongly or painfully affecting the feelings; intense, keen; painful, poignant. Now rare and literary....

6. Mentally stimulating or exciting; fascinating. Now rare....

I think the "smelly" connotation arose — a rose! — over the years as people used the word as a humorous euphemism, causing it to sound — at least to me — like a insult. I will reassign it to my mental list of noninsults.

In addition to troublesome words like "pungent," we're expected to get "Gattaca." That's a movie I put on my "watchlist" at Amazon after I saw that it was one of "The Top 5 Underrated Sci-Fi Movie Masterpieces."