Is Your Car A "Public Space," Free To Be Searched Without A Warrant?

 

The Minnesota Supreme Court (not to be confused with the proverbial Kangaroo Court or the Supreme Soviet) recently ruled that the interior of a vehicle is a “public place” if it is driven on public roads. Say what?! (More on that later.) This in a case involving a criminal charge over a BB gun found under a driver’s seat, after a Ramsey County sheriff’s deputy arrested the driver on suspicion of stealing a catalytic converter in May of 2022. In Minnesota, carrying a BB gun in a public space is a gross misdemeanor. “But, wait,” you yell, “a person’s privately owned vehicle isn’t a public space.” Great point, one that is inarguable Constitutionally. (But, again, more on that later.)

Proving, yet again, that God has an impeccable sense of humor, the driver’s name is Kyaw Be Bee. So, in a very real sense, the item in question was Be Bee’s gun. Be Bee’s BB gun. Be Bee, 36, was charged because he “did not have a permit to carry a firearm in public.” A BB gun is not considered by sane folks to be a “firearm,” which is likely why I—and so many other kids—got one for Christmas as a youth.

According to the Minnesota Red Star Star Tribune: “The case was initially dismissed in Ramsey County District Court due to lack of probable cause when Judge Leonardo Castro ruled that state law did not clearly define the interior of a privately owned car as a public place. A Minnesota Court of Appeals panel reversed that decision. Bee appealed to the state Supreme Court, which agreed with the Court of Appeals.”

So, the Supreme Court of the great and sovereign state of Minnesota ruled that the inside of one’s vehicle, when on public roads, is to be considered a “public space.” This is, of course, a patently absurd ruling that is certainly destined to make its way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

(And now, here is the “more on that later.”) This is an unbleepingbelievable decision. If one’s privately owned personal vehicle is public space simply because it is traveling through a public space, then one’s own insides are a public space, too. “We’re going to have to operate, might be something in your gut.” But that’s different, you say. No, it isn’t. Not really. And, with that ruling as precedent, it wouldn’t matter what you might be carrying/hiding. If you are walking through a grocery store, your purse or wallet would be considered a “public space.”

This is B, as in ‘B,’ and S, as in ‘S.’ And it is akin to people being arrested for praying inside their own house.

And it is part and parcel with DOGE’s fight to reign in the scope and power of government. The power we have ceded over many decades must be returned to us…or we sentence our progeny to eternal servitude and serfdom.