[Old School]

This is a no win situation for ACORN. Even if it gets its original trash back, Breitbart by now has copied the documents and will know if ACORN fails to produce any relevant documents during discovery. Disposing documents to avoid discovery during litigation - even if the documents have not yet been subpoenaed is a serious crime.
[INDENT]Acorn Office Seeks Return of Documents Taken From Trash

Acorn’s lead organizer in California, Amy Schur, said that the confidential papers had been carelessly included in the trash and that there had been no intent to dump rather than shred them.

“We want to get our property back so that we can properly secure it,” she said.

An Acorn employee filed a report on Monday with the police in National City, a San Diego suburb that has a law forbidding scavenging of trash, Ms. Schur said.

She also contacted the county district attorney’s office asking for help in retrieving documents that contain personal or confidential information. The district attorney’s office said it was looking into the matter.

Mr. Roach said he was not concerned. “They’re not going to get the documents back,” he said.

Mr. Roach said he was shielded by a 1988 Supreme Court ruling that said there was no privacy expectation for garbage. He also said he had contacted the district attorney’s office and sent copies of some documents because he believed Acorn might have broken privacy laws by failing to shred those papers containing personal information.
[/INDENT]

Regardless if was their intent or not, once the documents had been discarded and are placed in the trash bin they are no longer private property.

If Acorn broke privacy laws by discarding private papers, while trying to get their documents back, is about like a drunk reporting to the police that someone stole his liquor.