curtilage
Curtilage includes the area immediately surrounding a dwelling, and it counts as part of the home for many legal purposes, including searches and many self-defense laws . When considering whether something is in a dwelling's curtilage, courts consider four factors:
- The proximity of the thing to the dwelling.
- Whether the thing is within an enclosure surrounding the home.
- What the thing is used for.
- What steps, if any, the resident took to protect the thing from observation/access by people passing by.
These factors were determined by the Supreme Court in United States v. Dunn .
In the context of criminal procedure , courts generally call any part of the property surrounding a dwelling that is not part of the curtilage an “ open field .” The open field/curtilage differentiation is important because, while a warrant is required to search the curtilage, officers are allowed to make a warrantless search of an open field.
[Last reviewed in July of 2022 by the Wex Definitions Team ]
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