NCJ Number
167772
Date Published
1997
Length
16 pages
Annotation
This chapter analyzes legal issues regarding homeless persons, specifically search and seizure appellate case law.
Abstract
In granting an expectation of privacy to a homeless man, the Connecticut Supreme Court, in Connecticut v. Mooney, broke new ground in defining the constitutional rights of the homeless. The ruling was the first in which the highest court of a State ruled that protection from unreasonable search and seizure pertains to the personal belongings left by the homeless at what they regarded as their home. Some advocates for the homeless find disturbing the broader impact of this ruling. While the Mooney decision will protect some from further violations beyond those caused by homelessness itself, there is little satisfaction in knowing that their possessions hold some Fourth Amendment protection when both possessions and people should be inside, However, advocates fear that, if society takes the next step of finding that an alleyway or space under a bridge abutment is a home deserving of privacy, then by corollary society will find homelessness acceptable and no longer seek a solution. Notes