The Supreme Court held that the Minnesota version of the Fourth Amendment did not create a broader "expectation of privacy" for suspects than the Fourth Amendment in the U.S. Constitution.
Here, the Supreme Court held that a suspect did not have an expectation of privacy in garbage which the suspect placed on the curb and had been picked up by a trash truck.
THE CRIME: In 2012, David McMurray's daughter told her school councilor that she had seen her mother using a pipe to smoke drugs. As a "mandated reporter," the councilor notified police. A record check showed that McMurray and his wife had prior convictions for controlled substances.
A police officer arranged with a trash hauler to pick up McMurray's trash, keep it segregated, and to meet the officer at an arranged site for a search. The search yielded drug paraphernalia and three baggies with traces of methamphetamines. This evidence was the basis for an affidavit and warrant to search the McMurray home.
Police executed the search warrant and found McMurray with two other people in an upstairs bedroom. While searching the bedroom, police found, inside a clothes basket, plastic bags containing a “crystal like substance.” A laboratory test confirmed that one of the plastic
bags contained 3.3 grams of methamphetamine. McMurray was charged with third-degree possession of a controlled substance.
After denying McMurray's motion to suppress evidence found through the warrant which was based on the warrantless search of the garbage, the district court convicted McMurray.
The Court of Appeals affirmed the conviction, holding that federal cases had approved warrantless searches of garbage placed beyond the suspect's property.
On March 11, 2015, the Supreme Court sustained the district court, the Court of appeals, the search, and the conviction. See here.
McMurray argued that the Minnesota version of the Fourth Amendment created a broader expectation of privacy in garbage placed beyond the suspect's property than the expectation created by the version of the Fourth Amendment in the United States Constitution. The Supreme Court disagreed.
The Supreme Court held: "In the context of a warrantless search of garbage set out for collection in an area accessible to the public, there is no principled basis for interpreting Article I, Section 10,
of the Minnesota Constitution to provide greater protection than the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution. "
Here, the Supreme Court held that a suspect did not have an expectation of privacy in garbage which the suspect placed on the curb and had been picked up by a trash truck.
THE CRIME: In 2012, David McMurray's daughter told her school councilor that she had seen her mother using a pipe to smoke drugs. As a "mandated reporter," the councilor notified police. A record check showed that McMurray and his wife had prior convictions for controlled substances.
A police officer arranged with a trash hauler to pick up McMurray's trash, keep it segregated, and to meet the officer at an arranged site for a search. The search yielded drug paraphernalia and three baggies with traces of methamphetamines. This evidence was the basis for an affidavit and warrant to search the McMurray home.
Police executed the search warrant and found McMurray with two other people in an upstairs bedroom. While searching the bedroom, police found, inside a clothes basket, plastic bags containing a “crystal like substance.” A laboratory test confirmed that one of the plastic
bags contained 3.3 grams of methamphetamine. McMurray was charged with third-degree possession of a controlled substance.
After denying McMurray's motion to suppress evidence found through the warrant which was based on the warrantless search of the garbage, the district court convicted McMurray.
The Court of Appeals affirmed the conviction, holding that federal cases had approved warrantless searches of garbage placed beyond the suspect's property.
On March 11, 2015, the Supreme Court sustained the district court, the Court of appeals, the search, and the conviction. See here.
McMurray argued that the Minnesota version of the Fourth Amendment created a broader expectation of privacy in garbage placed beyond the suspect's property than the expectation created by the version of the Fourth Amendment in the United States Constitution. The Supreme Court disagreed.
The Supreme Court held: "In the context of a warrantless search of garbage set out for collection in an area accessible to the public, there is no principled basis for interpreting Article I, Section 10,
of the Minnesota Constitution to provide greater protection than the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution. "
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