Opinion ID: 2612515
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: gunwall

Text: This court has established six nonexclusive criteria to determine whether article 1, section 7 of our constitution provides greater protection to an individual than the Fourth Amendment. See State v. Gunwall, supra . Factor four requires a showing of previously established bodies of state law, including statutory law, that might bear on the granting of distinctive state constitutional rights. Such law may be responsive to concerns of its citizens long before they are addressed by analogous constitutional claims. Gunwall, at 61-62. To satisfy this factor, the majority relies upon Port Townsend Municipal Ordinance 6.04.030, which requires that trash cans be placed in a location where they will be convenient for the collector. Majority opinion, at 576. The majority also depends upon a Seattle ordinance that makes it unlawful for anyone other than the owner of the trash can, or one authorized by the owner to place objects in the can, to remove its contents except for collection. See SMC 21.36.100; majority opinion, at 576. The majority concludes that these ordinances indicate an intent to recognize and to protect a privacy interest in trash even though it acknowledges the Port Townsend ordinance was intended to protect the health of the general public rather than establish a privacy interest for individuals in garbage. Majority opinion, at 576. The majority concludes that this distinction is irrelevant. Majority opinion, at 576. This distinction is, in fact, of major relevance to resolution of the fourth factor. In Gunwall, the police obtained toll records and pen register tapes without a warrant. Gunwall, at 55-58. In concluding that greater protection under article 1, section 7 was warranted, this court found that Washington had a long history of protecting telephonic and other electronic communications. Gunwall, at 66. In particular, RCW 9.73.010 made it a misdemeanor for anyone wrongfully to obtain knowledge of a telegraphic message. This statute was enacted in 1909 and was based upon section 2342 of the Code of 1881. That code, adopted before statehood, extensively regulated telegraphic communications. Gunwall, at 66. In interpreting the statute, this court held that it was broad, detailed and extended considerably greater protection to our citizens than comparable federal statutes and rulings thereon. Gunwall, at 66 (citing State v. O'Neill, 103 Wn.2d 853, 700 P.2d 711 (1985)). Both the Legislature and the courts previously established a long history of protection for telephonic and other forms of electronic communications. By contrast, it is unreasonable to hold that two local ordinances regulating the collection of trash, one of which was intended to address public health safety, comprise a long preexisting history of protecting privacy interests in garbage. See majority opinion, at 576 (acknowledging the Port Townsend ordinance was intended to protect the health of the general public rather than individual privacy interests in garbage). Because these ordinances do not demonstrate a history of legislative or judicial protection of privacy interests in garbage, I would hold that the fourth Gunwall factor has not been met. The sixth Gunwall factor addresses whether the subject matter is local in nature or whether there appears to be a need for national uniformity. Gunwall, at 62. Only the former may be more appropriately addressed by resort to our state constitution. Gunwall, at 62. The Supreme Court has recognized individual states' freedom to determine under independent state grounds whether a privacy interest in garbage is reasonable. Majority opinion, at 576 (citing California v. Greenwood, 486 U.S. 35, 100 L.Ed.2d 30, 108 S.Ct. 1625 (1988)). The majority concludes that because California and Hawaii have found a privacy interest to exist in garbage, this indicates that the matter is of local concern. Majority opinion, at 577; see also People v. Krivda, 5 Cal.3d 357, 486 P.2d 1262, 96 Cal. Rptr. 62 (1971), vacated and remanded, 409 U.S. 33 (1972), reaffirmed, 8 Cal.3d 623, 504 P.2d 457, 105 Cal. Rptr. 521, cert. denied, 412 U.S. 919 (1973); State v. Tanaka, 67 Hawaii 658, 701 P.2d 1274 (1985). The majority's focus is misplaced. In Gunwall, we stated that factor six overlapped criterion four, and to that extent the same discussion applied to both. Gunwall, at 67. In other words, we found that a prevailing history of state protection would lend credence to the conclusion that the matter at hand was of local concern. We then found the sixth factor satisfied, reasoning that the objective of national uniformity was outweighed by overwhelming state policy considerations to the contrary. The focus of our inquiry was twofold: determining what the State of Washington had done in protecting privacy interests without resort to other states' treatment of the same issue; and balancing state, not local, policy considerations against an objective of national uniformity. See Gunwall, at 66-67. In doing so, one can only conclude that the sixth factor has not been met. The majority has failed to provide one policy consideration that would weigh in favor of finding the privacy interest asserted in this case a matter of local concern. See majority opinion, at 576-77. Unlike Gunwall, there is no prior history of legislative or judicial protection of privacy interests in garbage. The two local ordinances upon which the majority relies cannot be characterized as reflecting State policy considerations that would sufficiently outweigh an objective of national uniformity. Moreover, the majority's reliance upon other jurisdictions which have found a privacy interest on independent state grounds is tenuous at best. Majority opinion, at 576-77. If we are to rely upon other states' treatment of this issue, then the overwhelming majority of courts have held to the contrary. See, e.g., Greenwood, at 41-42 (citing Commonwealth v. Chappee, 397 Mass. 508, 512-13, 492 N.E.2d 719 (1986); Cooks v. State, 699 P.2d 653, 656 (Okla. Crim. App.), cert. denied, 474 U.S. 935 (1985); State v. Stevens, 123 Wis.2d 303, 314-17, 367 N.W.2d 788, cert. denied, 474 U.S. 852 (1985); State v. Ronngren, 361 N.W.2d 224, 228-30 (N.D. 1985); State v. Brown, 20 Ohio App.3d 36, 37-38, 484 N.E.2d 215 (1984); State v. Oquist, 327 N.W.2d 587 (Minn. 1982); People v. Whotte, 113 Mich. App. 12, 317 N.W.2d 266 (1982); Commonwealth v. Minton, 288 Pa. Super. 381, 391, 432 A.2d 212 (1981); State v. Schultz, 388 So.2d 1326 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 1980); People v. Huddleston, 38 Ill. App.3d 277, 347 N.E.2d 76 (1976); Willis v. State, 518 S.W.2d 247, 249 (Tex. Crim. App. 1975); Smith v. State, 510 P.2d 793 (Alaska), cert. denied, 414 U.S. 1086 (1973); State v. Fassler, 108 Ariz. 586, 592-93, 503 P.2d 807 (1972); Croker v. State, 477 P.2d 122, 125-26 (Wyo. 1970); State v. Purvis, 249 Or. 404, 411, 438 P.2d 1002 (1968)). We have adopted the six nonexclusive factors in Gunwall to ensure that resort to independent state grounds will be based upon well founded legal reasons and not by substitution of a court's own notion of justice for that of duly elected legislative bodies or the United States Supreme Court. Gunwall, 106 Wn.2d at 62-63; majority opinion, at 575. Resort to our state constitution must be derived from a process that is at once articulable, reasonable and reasoned.  (Italics mine.) Gunwall, at 63. The majority's resolution of factors four and six frustrates the policy behind the adoption of the Gunwall criteria. I would hold that Gunwall has not been met. As such, there is no basis upon which to extend broader protection to garbage under article 1, section 7.