I feel like you're trying to force a very specific wording, "expectation of privacy", that doesn't fit very well with what I'm trying to describe, because in different contexts there can be different definitions/interpretations/kinds of "privacy".
For example, if one is driving down a public street, obviously one does not have an expectation of "privacy" in the traditional sense.
If everyone driving down a public street is checked, without probable cause, to make sure they aren't violating any laws, I think that should be an unconstitutional search.
Obviously that isn't an unconstitutional search under current interpretations of laws, but I think it ought to be.
>I feel like you're trying to force a very specific wording, "expectation of privacy", that doesn't fit very well with what I'm trying to describe
You referred to constitutional search and seizure, referencing the 4th amendment. The things protected by the 4th amendment are generally referred to as the things you have an "expectation of privacy" in; I was just using the relevant jargon for the situation.
>Obviously that isn't an unconstitutional search under current interpretations of laws, but I think it ought to be.
Yeah, I got where you're coming from. It's just ... very dubious, for exactly the reason I gave, and which you had a chance to reply to, but elected to nitpick my (appropriate) jargon instead.
Yes, privacy is a thing that should be respected. But in no reasonable interpretation does privacy apply to something that you force a large number of indiscriminate, unconsenting people to observe, through no effort of their own. Whatever privacy applies to -- and there's plenty of room for disagreement otherwise -- it can't reasonably apply to that.
The "search" in question happened by passively observing the very same thing that the huge number of indiscriminate people were forced to observe anyway, only with quantifiable numbers for consistency. That can't have an expectation or pr-- er, can't count as an unreasonable search. They did not touch the vehicle. They did not look inside it. They simply received the very conspicuous observables that it threw off into its environs, for the purpose of enforcing the law against throwing that specific observable, that time.
There are many issues you can come up related to prosecuting that. "But you searched my private space" is not one of them.
For example, if one is driving down a public street, obviously one does not have an expectation of "privacy" in the traditional sense.
If everyone driving down a public street is checked, without probable cause, to make sure they aren't violating any laws, I think that should be an unconstitutional search.
Obviously that isn't an unconstitutional search under current interpretations of laws, but I think it ought to be.