Good news from the New Hampshire Supreme Court. In a new decision, it has disagreed with the Supreme Court and held that individuals have a right to privacy in trash they put out for collection.

The New Hampshire Supreme Court ruled Monday that garbage is private, even when it has been put out near the street for collection. The 4-1 decision runs counter to rulings by the U.S. Supreme Court and high courts in most other states. But the court said New Hampshire's constitution provides a stronger expectation of privacy than the U.S. Constitution. The decision came in a case in which police searched a man's trash and found wire scrapers coated with marijuana residue.

The Court relied on the New Hampshire state consitution in arriving at its ruling:

We conclude that the defendant exhibited an actual expectation of privacy in his trash because he placed it in black plastic bags with the expectation it would be picked up by authorized persons for eventual disposal. We also conclude that society is prepared to recognize that expectation as reasonable. We acknowledge that the United States Supreme Court has held, to the contrary, that "society would not accept as reasonable [a] claim to an expectation of privacy in trash left for collection in an area accessible to the public." California v. Greenwood, 486 U.S. 35, 41 (1988). We are free, however, to construe our State Constitution to provide greater protection than the Federal Constitution. See id. at 43; Ball, 124 N.H. at 231-32. We do so here.

The full text of the opinion is here. Hawaii and Washington are two other states that have ruled this way.