Supreme Court: Police Don't Need Warrant For Garbage Search

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The Minnesota Supreme Court says a person shouldn't expect the contents of a garbage container to remain private once it's put outside, so police don't need a warrant to search the trash.

Wednesday's ruling comes in the case of a Hutchinson man who argued he had a greater right to privacy under the Minnesota Constitution than he does under the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which guards against unlawful searches.

The state Supreme Court found that since the language in both constitutions is the same, there's no principled basis for interpreting the Minnesota Constitution to give greater protection.

Justices David Lillehaug and Alan Page disagreed. Lillehaug wrote in his dissent that household waste contains intimate, personal information that most people expect will stay private.