Collins v. Virginia

The automobile exception to the Fourth Amendment’s warrant requirement does not extend to the search of a home, its curtilage, or any vehicle found therein.

A Virginia police officer located, at a residential property, a motorcycle he believed to be stolen. From a parked position on the street the officer saw the stolen motorcycle underneath a tarp, in a partially enclosed area abutting the home, at the top of the driveway. To confirm his suspicions, the officer entered the property, uncovered the motorcycle, and ran the vehicle identification number. Plaintiff was arrested upon returning to the home and indicted on the charge of receiving stolen property. The Supreme Court of Virginia affirmed Plaintiff’s conviction broadly applying the automobile exception to all vehicles regardless of location. Under the automobile exception to the Fourth Amendment warrant requirement, officers may conduct a search of a vehicle without a warrant so long as the officer has probable cause. Here, the Court declined to extend the scope of the warrantless search to all vehicles regardless of circumstance, instead establishing that an officer must have a “lawful right of access to a vehicle” in order to conduct a search. The court held that the curtilage and items therein are afforded the same Constitutional protection as the home itself, therefore the warrantless search of a vehicle within the curtilage is presumptively unreasonable. REVERSED and REMANDED.