The Fourth Amendment: Does It Protect Your Garbage?

On May 16, the U.S. Supreme Court added a new brush stroke to the constitutional delineation of privacy. The subject was garbage. The question was whether the Fourth Amendment, which promises security against unreasonable searches and seizures, protects the contents of a trash bag put out on the curb for collection. When property is abandoned as trash, justice Felix Frankfurter held nearly thirty years ago. Writing for the majority of the Supreme Court last May, justice Byron White needed only a few paragraphs to set the California courts straight on the reach of the Federal Constitution. The Fourth Amendment, justice White reminded them, recognizes only subjective expectations of security that are objectively reasonable.