The Supreme Court Just Ruled Police Don’t Need a Warrant To Search Your Trash Cans

‘Should law enforcement be allowed to search your garbage without a warrant? For decades it has been debated, and the largely agreed-upon answer was that they do. But recently, the Minnesota Supreme Court ruled that a person should not expect privacy when it comes to the contents of a garbage container.

Once the trash can or recycling bin is placed outside, the Court ruled that police no longer need a warrant to search it.

The ruling came Wednesday, as the Court determined the legality based on the case of a Hutchinson, Minnesota man who said that the Minnesota Constitution protected him even more from warrantless police searches than does the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which already is supposed to guard against unlawful searches.’

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