Who’s in your trash?
This article is pretty long but makes some good points about the current state of privacy in the US. The last page in particular sums up the current situation pretty well.
The specific situation in question is whether your trash still belongs to you once it’s on your curb. If the answer turns out to be “No, garbage is not subject to privacy restrictions” then that begs the next obvious question:
Does that mean that authorities can search the home of Oscar the Grouch without a warrant?
Actually, wasn’t there a L&O about that, where they searched the posessions of a homeless guy, living in the bushes in a park (it was his regular crash-space), and all sorts of things about due process and them needing to get a warrant? Then again, I really don’t remember how that episode turned out.
Of course Law & Order isn’t reality.
Yeah. In that case they contended the park was his dwelling. In the article above, no one was contending that the location of the trash was part of the person’s home.
And as long as I don’t go to New York, I will go on believing that L&O is real!!
Sure, but the home of Oscar the Grouch, is in fact, a dwelling, although that of a muppet. So my point is, via the L&O example, that although it is trash, you’d need a warrant to search Oscar’s trash, because he lives there.