The Pennsylvania Constitution affords greater protection from searches of “open fields” just beyond a home or building, the state’s top court ruled as it expanded residents’ Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable searches and seizures.
“Slavish adherence” to the 2007 ruling in Commonwealth v. Russo “must give way to the greater privacy and property protections afforded” in the Pennsylvania Constitution’s adapted version of the Fourth Amendment, Justice P. Kevin Brobson wrote for the majority.
The court overturned Russo, in which the court held that the state constitution’s protections don’t extend to open fields immediately beyond the “curtilage” of a home …