search-and-seizure fourth-amendment perimeter-search
Is perimeter search without a warrant ever legal?
<p>Are perimeter searches without consent nor warrant ever legal?</p>

<p>What if it's a motor vehicle / car?  Is the situation different with a house?</p>

<p>Huge difference between a car and a house.  For example, <a href="http://lancasteronline.com/news/local/supreme-court-pennsylvania-cops-no-longer-need-a-warrant-to/article_6a407fc6-d077-11e3-8025-0017a43b2370.html" rel="nofollow">at least in Pennsylvania no warrant is required to search a vehicle on public roads</a>.  In other states there are <a href="http://www.arechigo-stokka.com/warrantless-vehicle-searches/" rel="nofollow">so many easy pretexts</a> that you practically have little protection from a <em>full</em> vehicle search (although the pretext will have to withstand strict scrutiny if evidence found in a search is used to charge you with a crime).</p>

<p>Your house, on the other hand, still enjoys very strong fourth-amendment protections: One of my favorite U.S. Supreme Court cases on the subject is <em><a href="http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/12pdf/11-564_5426.pdf" rel="nofollow">Florida v. Jardines</a></em>, in which SCOTUS ruled that even approaching the front door with a drug-sniffing dog without a warrant constituted an illegal search.  (The majority opinion is worth reading for its illumination of current law on this question.)</p>

<p>Depends on what you mean by "perimeter search". Police can, for example, walk around the perimeter of a car or house if they have permission or the right to walk where they're walking (e.g, in your next-door neighbors' yard) If, while walking, they see evidence in your yard that you committed a crime, they can walk over and seize it (see <a href="http://www.olemiss.edu/depts/ncjrl/pdf/Law%20Enforcement%20Materials/Plain%20View%20Doctrine.pdf" rel="nofollow">http://www.olemiss.edu/depts/ncjrl/pdf/Law%20Enforcement%20Materials/Plain%20View%20Doctrine.pdf</a> for more info on the plain view doctrine)</p>

<p>If a K9 is lawfully walking with them, and the dog smells evidence of illegal activity on your property, the police can legally act on the dog's alert.</p>
