{"id":64319,"date":"2026-06-26T12:10:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T17:10:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/?p=64319"},"modified":"2026-06-28T12:53:59","modified_gmt":"2026-06-28T17:53:59","slug":"w-d-tenn-a-driveway-isnt-always-curtilage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/?p=64319","title":{"rendered":"W.D.Tenn.: A driveway isn\u2019t always curtilage"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>A driveway isn\u2019t always curtilage. If it\u2019s not closed off, likely not. United States v. Lyons, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 140145 (W.D. Tenn. June 24, 2026):<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>And as the Chief Magistrate Judge also discussed, there are at least two Sixth Circuit decisions that point to the right answer in this case: United States v. Estes, 343 F. App&#8217;x 97 (6th Cir. 2009), and United States v. Galaviz, 645 F.3d 347 (6th Cir. 2011). In Estes, the court determined that because the driveway in question was not enclosed, had not been protected from observation, and was used as a &#8220;point of entry into the residence,&#8221; it was not curtilage. Estes, 343 F. App&#8217;x at 101. Similarly, Galaviz involved a driveway approximately two car-lengths long, adjacent to the residence, without enclosure or visual obstruction, &#8220;abutting the public sidewalk.&#8221; Galaviz, 645 F.3d at 356. The Sixth Circuit concluded that, &#8220;[t]herefore, police officers needed no warrant to enter onto the portion of the driveway on which Galaviz&#8217;s car was parked.&#8221; Id.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A driveway isn\u2019t always curtilage. If it\u2019s not closed off, likely not. United States v. Lyons, 2026 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 140145 (W.D. Tenn. June 24, 2026):<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-64319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-curtilage"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=64319"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64319\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64322,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64319\/revisions\/64322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=64319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=64319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=64319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}