Search and Seizure — drug-sniffing dogs

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U.S. Supreme Court

Criminal

Search and Seizure — drug-sniffing dogs

Taking a drug-sniffing dog onto a citizen’s front porch is a search under the Fourth Amendment.

The officers’ entry was not explicitly or implicitly invited. Officers need not “shield their eyes” when passing by a home “on public thoroughfares,” California v. Ciraolo, 476 U. S. 207, 213, but “no man can set his foot upon his neighbour’s close without his leave,” Entick  v. Carrington, 2 Wils. K. B. 275, 291, 95 Eng. Rep. 807, 817. A police officer not armed with a warrant may approach a home in hopes of speaking to its occupants, because that is “no more than any private  citizen might do.” Kentucky v. King, 563 U. S. ___, ___. But the scope of a license is limited not only to a particular area but also to a specific purpose, and there is no customary invitation to enter the curtilage simply to conduct a search.

73 So. 3d 34, affirmed.

11-564 Florida v. Jardines

Scalia, J.; Kagan, J., concurring; Alito, J., dissenting.