The city of Seattle has been sued for apparently violating the constitutional of rights of its residents – searching their garbage cans without warrants and depriving them of due process – because of its mandatory recycling program that does just that: requires garbage collectors to check residents' trash and lets them impose fines.
The case has been brought by the Pacific Legal Foundation on behalf of a number of residents.
It points out that the Washington state constitution provides that "No person shall be disturbed in his private affairs, or his home invaded, without authority of law."
The complaint explains that citizens are to be provided for due process before they can be penalized, and the state supreme court already has ruled that "a person has a legitimate expectation that, absent a warrant, the contents of his or her garbage cans will remain private and free from government inspection while placed curbside for collection."
Those factors all could create problems for the city's mandatory recycling and composting program, which specifically instructs garbage collectors to inspect trash can contents without warrants, determine mathematically if compostables make up more than 10 percent, then publicly shame people who are in violation.
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The city has set up its program so that the garbage collectors will impose financial penalties on residents based on their judgment starting in 2016.
"Seattle can’t place its composting goals over the privacy and due process rights of its residents," said PLF attorney Ethan Blevins. "This food waste ban uses trash collectors to pry through people's garbage without a warrant, as Washington courts have long required for garbage inspections by police."
"While it’s laudable to encourage recycling and composting, the city is going about it in a way that trashes the privacy rights of each and every person in Seattle," said PLF Principal Attorney Brian Hodges, who is managing attorney with PLF's Pacific Northwest Center in Bellevue.
"The city may try to put a happy face on the program, with assurances that it's not nosy and meddlesome, but the internal documents tell another story," Hodges said. "Training documents call for 'zero tolerance' and show garbage collectors removing bags to inspect a garbage can, peering into translucent bags, and opening torn or untied bags."
The civil rights case filed in King County Superior Court seeks a ruling that the plan is unconstitutional and should be stopped.
It was filed in behalf of Seattle residents Richard Bonesteel, Scott Shock, Steven Davies, Sally Oljar, Mark Elster, Greg Moon, Keli Carender and Edwin Yasukawa.
Seattle's ordinance, No. 124582, was launched on Jan. 1. It prohibits residents from throwing food and compostable paper in the trash.
According to the law firm, "The food waste ban requires garbage collectors to monitor the contents of garbage cans (through 'visual inspection'), and to report residents to Seattle Public Utilities when 'significant amounts' of a can's contents (more than 10 percent) are made up of recyclables or food waste. Currently, an 'educational' tag is affixed to offending cans; starting in January 2016, fines will be imposed."
"In short, this program calls for massive and persistent snooping on the people of Seattle," said Hodges. "This is not just objectionable as a matter of policy, it is a flagrant assault on people's constitutional rights."
City officials could not be reached early Friday for comment.
The fines will be up to $50 for violations, starting in 2016, officials said.
But the issues are bigger, including violations of Article I, Section 7 of the state constitution, which provides privacy protections that are even stronger than the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
Hodges said, "The constitution and courts of Washington recognize that the right to privacy, like the right to property, is a fundamental freedom. Seattle city government is subverting that right by prying into people's private affairs via their trash cans."
And due process is involved, he said, since the fines are imposed without any option for the resident to challenge the decision.
"Article 1, Section 3, of the Washington Constitution says, 'No person shall be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.' Yet for most alleged offenders, the food waste ban does not provide any method for challenging claims of violation. In fact, it operates solely on the word of garbage collectors," the PLF explained.
One plaintiff, Davies, said, "There is nothing trivial about government abridging our right to personal privacy in our homes and our daily lives. Seattle's garbage law promotes government snooping, and that's not just offensive, it's a violation of constitutional protections for all Seattle residents. The city can't treat people's basic rights as disposable."
See an explanation of the issue: