United States v. Dunn

We granted the Governments petition for certiorari to decide whether the area near a barn, located approximately 50 yards from a fence surrounding a ranch house, is, for Fourth Amendment purposes, within the curtilage of the house. The Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit held that the barn lay within the houses curtilage, and that the District Court should have suppressed certain evidence obtained as a result of law enforcement officials intrusion onto the area immediately surrounding the barn. 782 F.2d 1226 (1986). We conclude that the barn and the area around it lay outside the curtilage of the house, and accordingly reverse the judgment of the Court of Appeals.