Gov. Kim Reynolds signs law seeking to overturn Iowa Supreme Court's ban on warrantless trash searches - Des Moines Register
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 their 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.
The new law will return Iowa to the "status quo" it had before the state court's decision last year, Rep. Steven Holt, R-Denison, said during a March 22 House debate.
"The searching of abandoned garbage makes our communities safer because numerous crimes are solved each year using this essential law enforcement tool," he said. "And this legislation seeks to restore that important precedent."
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Several law enforcement groups supported the legislation while the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa and the Iowa Association for Justice opposed it.
The law passed the Iowa Senate unanimously but faced more opposition in the House, where members approved it by a 58-36 vote.
During debate, Rep. Mary Wolfe, D-Clinton, said Republicans were taking the wrong approach to making the change and that it would likely be ruled unconstitutional. Instead, she said, the proper avenue is to go through the state's constitutional amendment process.
That process would require the the amendment to pass the Legislature in the next two general assemblies, then Iowans to vote on it.
“This body does not have the legal authority to legislate that constitutionally protected liberty interest away,” she said. “And you know that.”
Reynolds signed the law Thursday without comment.
Ian Richardson covers the Iowa Statehouse for the Des Moines Register. Reach him at [email protected], at 515-284-8254, or on Twitter at @DMRIanR.
source: https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/politics/2022/04/21/iowa-supreme-court-ban-warrant-search-garbage-kim-reynolds-law/7402415001/
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