via desmoinesregister:
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds has signed a law that seeks to legislatively overturn a state ban on warrantless police searches of garbage following an Iowa Supreme Court decision last year.
Senate File 2296, which Reynolds signed Thursday, says people have “no reasonable expectation of privacy” for garbage placed outside their residence for waste collection “in a publicly accessible area,” such as a street curb.
Instead, the garbage will be considered abandoned property, and law enforcement may search and seize it without a search warrant, according to the law.
The law is an attempt to overturn a ban on such searches that resulted from a June 2021 Iowa Supreme Court decision. The court in a 4-3 opinion found that under the Iowa Constitution, police cannot search a defendant’s trash for evidence while it’s on the defendant’s property without getting a warrant.
The ruling set a higher standard in Iowa than the U.S. Supreme Court, which in 1988 held such searches by law enforcement are permissible. Iowa was among a handful of states to have a stricter standard.
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