ABSTRACT
The plain-sight, or plain-view, doctrine is a line of reasoning that carves out an exception to the warrant requirement for searches and seizures under the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution. The plain-view doctrine allows police conducting a warrant search to seize contraband or other evidence of criminal activity lying in the open even though those items have not been specifically listed in the warrant. Two prohibition-era cases drew on this doctrine. In Hester v. United States, 265 US 57, the Court ruled that a bottle of "moonshine whiskey" that Samuel Hester had disposed of during a chase in "an open field" was not subject to the same Fourth Amendment warrant procedures as was the adjacent farmhouse. Justice Antonin Scalia reasoned that since the policeman had turned over the equipment absent probable cause, the search went beyond what was allowed under the plain-sight doctrine.
