Opinion ID: 2612515
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: distinction without a difference

Text: Assuming the majority's result is justified, the new constitutional parameter it draws provides no additional protection against the warrantless search of garbage than what was previously accorded under the Fourth Amendment. The majority concludes that garbage in the can retains a privacy interest requiring a search warrant. Majority opinion, at 578. The majority, however, does not require that once the trash is out of the can it be commingled before a warrantless search can occur. One could therefore reasonably conclude that once the garbage is in the collection bin of the truck, it loses its privacy interest or, at the very least, the privacy interest is diminished. Thus, the garbage could be searched without a warrant. Consequently, garbage collectors could be instructed to empty the truck's bin before picking up an individual's trash and then turn the contents over to the police. This new boundary creates a distinction without a difference. Police merely have to wait until the trash is carried a few feet further than the curb and is emptied into the collection bin of the garbage truck before engaging in a warrantless search. See California v. Greenwood, 486 U.S. 35, 37, 100 L.Ed.2d 30, 108 S.Ct. 1625 (1988). This fruitless extension of the warrantless search boundary does nothing more than complicate an already complex area of law.