State v. Stevens, 2007 SD 54

Summary

The Supreme Court of South Dakota reversed the suppression of evidence obtained after police searched the defendant's curbside trash and used the results to obtain a warrant for his home. The court held that the defendant had not established a constitutionally protected expectation of privacy in the trash under the two-part test adopted in State v. Schwartz, and that reasonable suspicion was not required for the trash search. Two justices dissented, concluding that society recognizes a reasonable expectation of privacy in household garbage.

Holdings

1. A person has a constitutionally protected privacy interest in trash only if the person exhibited an actual subjective expectation of privacy and society is willing to recognize that expectation as reasonable. Stevens failed to establish the objective prong, so the officers' inspection of his curbside trash was not a constitutionally regulated search.
2. Reasonable or articulable individualized suspicion is not required before law enforcement conducts a trash search when the defendant lacks a constitutionally protected privacy interest in the trash.
3. Because the trash inspection did not violate a constitutionally protected privacy interest, the circuit court erred in suppressing the evidence and in concluding that the home-search warrant lacked probable cause on that basis.

Questions Presented

1. Whether Stevens had a constitutionally protected privacy interest in trash placed at the curb for municipal collection.
2. Whether law enforcement was required to possess reasonable or articulable individualized suspicion before searching Stevens's curbside trash.
3. Whether the evidence obtained from the trash search could support probable cause for the warrant to search Stevens's home.

Disposition

reversed