Snooping in the Garbage

How far will you go to protect people from themselves? The guilty from society?Your view expressed in “Trashing of Freedom” (editorial, May 21) tends to favoranarchy.

The Supreme Court, I believe, merely found the Fourth Amendment “property” protection boundary to lie somewhere between the house and the curb, whereas it was previously undefined; it conceivably could have included the trash dump.

In prior cases evidence could not be used if it was developed from finding a murder weapon in the dump and traced to an owner via his household because it was evidence improperly obtained--without a warrant. The Supreme Court having found for the appellant would have provided a basis for such a contention.

I am confident that the court is in a better position than you and I to make such determinations. I say this even though we are not always in consonance with the results. L.D. Smithey

Pacific Palisades