curtilage

Thousands of people from around the world “walked together” into that book and the mountains it describes, at a time when most of us could go no further than the curtilage of our dwellings.

The appeals judges wrote that “it is undisputed that Dockery was within the curtilage of defendant’s property — and therefore, within his home … when defendant utilized defensive force against him.”

A curtilage is the area within the outer boundary of a home’s environs: the patios, yard and driveway.

But Sotomayor wrote: “Nothing in our case law . . . suggests that the automobile exception gives an officer the right to enter a home or its curtilage to access a vehicle without a warrant.”

“The question before the court,” she wrote, “is whether the automobile exception justifies the invasion of the curtilage. The answer is no.”