29 Dec 08 Is it legal to search through a person’s trash once they have thrown it away?
Tags: Hell, Lazy Person, Legal Search, Search Person, Towanda, Trash Bags, Trash Bins, Warning Letter
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Tags: Hell, Lazy Person, Legal Search, Search Person, Towanda, Trash Bags, Trash Bins, Warning Letter
I think once your trash is off of your property, or in this case out of your apartment, it can be looked through and stuff.
I don’t see why it would be illegal.
With the identity laws that are out,it is no longer legal to look through peoples trash.
Why do you care? Are you the lazy person? Do you think if you throw your trash out somewhere so that someone else has to pick it up, that you have some rights to privacy? I’ll bet they have the right to find out who is dumping and that probably is illegal. You’re lucky they’re not calling the police.
I don’t know if the person who says that the law in California protects your trash is right or not, but even if they are I doubt the law would apply in this case. The people searching the trash are the owners of the trash receptacle. They let you use it but if you don’t want them to look at your garbage you don’t have to use the dumpster.
there is no constitutional “reasonable expectation of privacy” in garbage that is discarded to be hauled away. thats the constitutional standard that the government actors (ie. police) have to live up to- thats why if they find evidence of wrongdoing against you in your garbage, they can probably use it against you legally. not that thats what is going on here but basically bc there is no expectation of privacy, a civilian can ‘dumpster-dive’ freely….especially if the garbage is not on your personal property anymore (ie. its on the curb).
Yes. The Supreme Court says that a citizen does not have privacy in their trash once they have thrown it out. Here, you apartment manager can go though the trash.