Can a police officer without a warrant enter into the front yard of a house, through a screen door, and observe illegal activity in plain view?

[9 Cal.3d 632] In People v. Willard (1965) 238 Cal.App.2d 292, 47 Cal.Rptr. 734, police officers without a warrant went upon the defendant's property, and from the steps leading up to a side door of defendant's house, through a screen door, observed illegal activity. In concluding that 'there was no substantial, if any, degree of privacy to the area' (Id. at p. 307, 47 Cal.Rptr. at p. 744), the court pointed out that the door appeared to have been a normal means of access to and egress from the house and that the sidewalk from the property line to this door was used by persons other than the occupants of the house; while the officer stood on the sidewalk, which enjoyed public use, he could constitutionally observe illegal activity in plain view inside the house.

People v. Berutko (1969) 71 Cal.2d 84, 77 Cal.Rptr. 217, 453 P.2d 721 involved a situation in which the officers went to a common passageway bordering defendant's apartment, and from there observed contraband through an aperture in the curtains which the defendant had drawn. Noting that the case involved 'observation by an officer from a place where he had a right to be and through an opening which defendant had provided through his arrangement of drapes covering his window' (Id. at p. 91, 77 Cal.Rptr. at p. 221, 453 P.2d at p. 725 (emphasis added and deleted)), the court held that the police had not violated constitutional limits by observations which they drew from an area in which they were 'lawfully present.' (Id. at p. 94, 77 Cal.Rptr. 217, 453 P.2d 721.)

We faced the same issue in People v. Bradley (1969) 1 Cal.3d 80, 81 Cal.Rptr. 457, 460 P.2d 129. In that case a police officer proceeded to the rear area of defendant's back yard, and observed plants growing in the yard 'a scant 20 feet from the defendant's door to which presumably delivery men and others came' (Id. at p. 85, 81 Cal.Rptr. at p. 459, 460 P.2d at p. 131). Closer scrutiny revealed the plants to be marijuana. ³ Based on these facts a

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