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by nateb2022 22 days ago
As Katz established, the Fourth Amendment protects people, NOT places. The assumption that "if it's visible from the windows, it's public" is a dangerous non-sequiter that completely falls apart under any form of jurisprudence.

Your understanding of privacy misapplies the plain view doctrine. Plain view allows the state to seize evidence provided that the officer seizing the evidence has a lawful right to access or observe the seized object. (Collins v. Virginia)

An officer glancing through a car window is performing a constitutional act.

However, were the state to compile a history of your car's location, which it does, that exposes your "familial, political, professional, religious, and sexual associations." (Jones) This compilation of data is an action legally defined as a search, since it turns up data NOT readily available in plain view. And this search takes place without warrant.