Slashdot Mirror
Trash is Private Property in New Hampshire
suwain_2 writes "As this article in the Nashua (New Hampshire) Telegraph discusses, the New Hampshire Supreme Court has ruled that trash set out on the sidewalk for collection is private property. In the case that led to this landmark decision, police searched through an area man's trash, finding traces of marijuana in his garbage. The New Hampshire Supreme Court declared yesterday that the police didn't have the right to go through his trash without a warrant. This is the opposite of what most states, and the US Supreme Court, have previously ruled. Live free or die indeed."
I can just see my private property trash joining together with all the other private property trash down at the landfill and declaring themselves a commune.
Either that, or else I'll be sued by someone whose private property trash was injured in a scuffle with my private property trash in the back of dumpster somewhere.
"Provided by the management for your protection."
The curb isn't your private property. Hence police have been able to go through trash for ages.
In Oregon, after a case where the cops went through a person's trash to get evidence (against one of their own officers, in fact), one of the local weeklies decided to do a little protest.
They went through the trash of the police chief, they mayor (who supported the right for cops to go through trash), and the district attorney. They then held meetings with each of these people, asking how they felt about this privacy violation. The police chief actually threw them out of his office. Then they reported on these meetings and printed a list of every item they found in the trash bins.
Needless to say, the "victims" were pissed. The mayor held a press conference, claiming she was going to sue Wilamette Week for, uhhm, well, she never said what exactly. She never did sue.
It was pretty hilarious.