5.Rule of Law

To summarize the case the defendant left his garbage on the street in front of his home. Assuming the garbage man would come and haul it off to the landfill. A drug suspect in another case told police the suspect was a trafficking drug through his home. Detective Strancer asked the regular trash hauler to empty his truck, pick up Greenwoods garbage, and deliver it to the police station. The trash was delivered and searched by police. The contents of the trash bag included drug paraphernalia and traces of cocaine. The police were then granted a search warrant to search the property where they found a substantial amount of illegal narcotics. The case wentto the California courts where it was dismissed. Then carried out to the Supreme Court. The court concluded that the warrantless search of the trash was justifiable under the Fourth Amendment the trash search was valid. The court held the defendant responsible. The final vote was 6-2 against the defendant. The court stated “The police cannot be expected to ignore criminal activity that can be observed by "any member of the public."” http://www.oyez.org/cases/19801989/1987/1987_86_684/