Court Opinion

ID: 9861472
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-25 00:04:52.990464+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T11:28:32.289453
License: Public Domain

DICKSON, Justice,
concurring and dissenting.
I concur in the majority's analysis of Article 1, Section 11 of the Indiana Constitution and in the application of its independent reasonableness standard rather than the two-prong test used in federal Fourth Amendment jurisprudence. I also concur in Part II of the majority opinion.
However, I dissent to the majority's application of the Section 11 reasonableness standard to condone warrantless police searches of closed trash containers. I remain con-vineed that Indiana citizens should be able to dispose of their trash without relinquishing their privacy.
The waste products from homes can reveal intimate details of private religious beliefs, finance, political interests, medical and legal matters, personal relationships, and numerous other confidential matters. In today's predominantly urban and suburban society, it is no longer reasonable (and in many situations unlawful) privately to burn or bury unwanted waste. People must necessarily rely upon governmental or commercial trash collection systems to achieve anonymous disposal. The contents of sealed trash containers intended for such disposal ought to be deemed as included among the "papers and effects" protected against - unreasonable search and seizure by Section 11 of Indiana's Bill of Rights.
When there is reasonable cause to believe that the contents of a particular home's ecurb-side trash may provide evidence of specific criminal activity, the police may seek a warrant authorizing its search and seizure. This assures a proper balance between effective law enforcement and the preservation of personal privacy free from unfettered government intrusion. I therefore conclude that it is unreasonable under Article 1, Section 11 of the Indiana Constitution to permit warrant less searches and seizures by police of private trash left for curbside pick-up and disposal.