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CRUISING for SEX - View Single Post - Is a booth at an Bookstore a public place?
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Old 11th July 2007, 07:55 PM
mfosteresq
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Join Date: Jul 2007
Posts: 14
Bookstore Booth Bust

My response is not Colorado-specific, but based on general constitutional principles and my experience in defending these type of cases in the California courts.

The supreme law of the land is the Constitution of the United States. The 4th Amendment prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures. The remedy for illegally seized evidence (which can be what the officer viewed) is its exclusion from evidence.

The constitution protects people, not places or things. The issue turns on whether the charged person had an objectively reasonable expectation of privacy. Generally, a closed and locked booth door shows an individual's intent to have privacy --- and that individual would have both a subjectively and objectively reasonable expectation of privacy.

There is a long line of public restroon and video booth cases in California that have examined this issue. These cases have generally disallowed spying or observations from unusual vantage points. The police need to have the right to be where they are when the illegal act is observed. Essentially, this burden is on the police to prove. We have brought many evidence suppression motions on these types of facts.

There is nothing per se illegal about sharing a booth with someone, but this has a major proviso: Local ordinances, such as the one in Sunnyvale, California, often prohibit occupancy of a viewing booth by more than one person at a time. While this is enforceable against the establishment, it gives law enforcement a plausible reason to conduct site investigations. You might want to check your local ordinances (usually,signs or verbal instructions of "one to a booth" is a good indicator).

In short: A locked booth in a bookstore is one of the most constitutionally-protected places used by cruisers, but nothing is 100%.
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