New Hampshire (1971) had mandated such. This case had tremendous effect on our criminal justice system in that it removed the inadvertence requirement from one of the exceptions to the Fourth Amendment. This requirement had called for a search warrant to specify the items that were to be searched for and seized, and anything else that was discovered had to be done inadvertently. Previously, the U.S. Supreme Court had held that in order for the police to seize evidence not mentioned in a warrant, they must find it inadvertently and it must be in plain view, which is required by the plain view doctrine. The plain view doctrine is the rule that says a law enforcement officer may make a search and seizure without obtaining a search warrant if evidence of criminal activity or the product of a crime can be seen without entry or search. However, in Horton v. California the Court argued that the inadvertence requirement was unnecessary and that the other warrant requirements would prevent police abuse of the warrant, even though the Fourth Amendment requires the warrant to describe all items to be...

Furthermore, this decision granted police greater freedom for obtaining evidence, as long as they met the conditions imposed by the Constitution and the previous Supreme Court rulings.
Essentially the ruling in this case has made it easier for police officers to obtain evidence that if not seized at the moment it is found would be destroyed by the time they could return with a warrant that has it listed on it. As long as the officer follows the three-prong test that was set down in the Horton case the evidence will be considered obtained lawfully. The three prongs requires an officer to be (1) lawfully present at the place where the evidence can be plainly viewed, (2) the officer must have a lawful right of access to the object, and (3) the incriminating character of the object must be immediately apparent.

Works Cited

Horton v. California, 496 U.S. 128. Supreme Court of the U.S. 4 June 1990.

"Plainview Doctrine." The Free Legal Dictionary. n.d. 26 March 2009 <

http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/plain+view+doctrine>