Know Your Rights: Can Police Search a Tent Located on a Public Campground? Can They Arrest Occupant?

Gooch must have had both a subjective and an objectively reasonable expectation of privacy in the tent. Katz v. United States, 389 U.S. 347, 361, 88 S.Ct. 507, 516, 19 L.Ed.2d 576 (1967).

SEARCH: We have already established that a person can have an objectively reasonable expectation of privacy in a tent on private property. LaDuke v. Nelson,762 F.2d 1318, 1326 n. 11, 1332 n. 19 (9th Cir. 1985). Accord LaDuke v. Castillo,455 F. Supp. 209 (E.D.Wash. 1978). This reasonable expectation is not destroyed when a person’s tent is pitched instead on a public campground where one is legally permitted to camp. The Fourth Amendment “protects people, not places.” Katz,389 U.S. at 351, 88 S.Ct. at 511; id. at 351-52, 88 S.Ct. at 511

ARREST: No warrant is required to arrest a suspected felon in a public place. United States v. Watson,423 U.S. 411, 96 S.Ct. 820, 46 L.Ed.2d 598 (1976). Absent exigent circumstances, a warrantless arrest is unconstitutional in a “non-public” place, even when that place is not one’s residence. United States v. Alvarez,810 F.2d 879, 881 (9th Cir. 1987); Minnesota v. Olson,495 U.S. 91, 96 n. 5, 110 S.Ct. 1684, 1688 n. 5, 109 L.Ed.2d 85 (1990). See United States v. Ruckman,806 F.2d 1471, 1475-76 (10th Cir. 1986) (McKay, J., dissenting) (suggesting that inhabitant of cave on public property has an objectively reasonable expectation of privacy therein even if the cave is not considered a house).

Though Gooch’s tent was pitched on public property, we hold that the closed tent was a “non-public” place for purposes of Fourth Amendment analysis. We have recognized that, despite the special status afforded a residence under the Fourth Amendment, “an individual’s privacy interests may be implicated in a variety of other settings.” United States v. Driver,776 F.2d 807, 809 (9th Cir. 1985). By establishing a campground, the state created a situation where campers were invited to come to set up a tent. The campers could reasonably assert a legitimate, though temporary, interest in their privacy even in this short-term “dwelling.”

We hold that Gooch’s warrantless arrest in his tent violated the proscription of the Fourth Amendment.

Full case here: U.S. v. Gooch, 6 F.3d 673 (9th Cir. 1993), https://casetext.com/case/us-v-gooch-7