It is settled law that the police may rummage through a person’s trash once it is put out to the curb for collection. “Trash pulls” are a routine part of drug investigations, where sufficient evidence of drug activity found in the garbage may support a search warrant for the associated residence. But how much evidence is enough? For example, if a person’s garbage contains the remains of a single marijuana cigarette, does that provide probable cause to believe that further evidence of drug activity will be present inside the house? Background. The seminal Supreme Court case in this area is California v. Greenwood, 486 U.S. 35 (1988). In that case, an officer asked the “regular trash collector” to pick up and deliver to the officer several garbage bags that the defendant had left at the curb for collection. The officer searched the bags and found items “indicative of narcotics use,” though the Court’s opinion does not say exactly what the items were. Based on the results of the trash pull, the officer sought and obtained a search warrant for the residence. Upon execution of the warrant, the officer found cocaine and hashish. A second trash pull about a month later revealed more indicia of drug activity, and a second search warrant turned up more drugs. The defendant argued that the warrantless trash pulls violated the Fourth Amendment, but the Court disagreed, finding no reasonable expectation of privacy in the trash bags: “It is common knowledge that plastic garbage bags left on [...]
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