California v. Greenwood II

I feel that I am really coming to understand the Supreme Court Case of California v. Greenwood. In the case, I feel that both sides have an arguable point. Greenwood's defensive case is that the search of his trash outside on his curb was unconstitutional according to the Fourth and Fifteenth Amendments. The fourth amendment reads, "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized." -U.S. Constitution However, the fourth amendment does not prohibit the warrantless search and seizure of garbage left for collection outside the front of a home. "The expectation of privacy does not guarantee protection by the Fourth Amendment unless society considers that expectation to be reasonable. It is not reasonable to believe that trash placed at the curb will remain private." -http://law.jrank.org/pages/13057/California-v-Greenwood.html Greenwood also argued that the California constitutional amendment violates the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. California, however, found this to be incorrect. "White noted that decisions made about excluding evidence, based on the Fourth Amendment, have weighed the benefits ofpreventing police misconduct against the costs of excluding reliable evidence. The Court has declined to apply the exclusionary rule when law officers have acted in good faith and when the benefit to the guilty defendant would go against the basic concepts of the criminal justice system." - http://law.jrank.org/pages/13057/California-v-Greenwood.html For next week, I plan to prepare a good case in California’s defense. I feel that the search of Greenwood’s garbage was, in fact, constitutional and that search was done with probable cause. Greenwood did however present to the court a good point which led Americans to once again question the wording of the U.S. Constitution.