BRENNAN, J., dissenting 480 U. S. "[c]urtilage includes all outbuildings used in connection with a residence, such as garages, sheds, [and] barns. . . connected with and in close vicinity of the residence." Luman v. Oklahoma, 629 P. 2d 1275, 1276 (Okla. Crim. App. 1981) (emphasis added). The overwhelming majority of state courts have consistently held that barns are included within the curtilage of a farmhouse. See, e. g., Brown v. Oklahoma City, 721 P. 2d 1346, 1349 (Okla. App. 1986) (“[C]urtilage includes, among other things, garages, sheds, barns and the like"); McGlothlin v. State, 705 S. W. 2d 851, 857 (Tex. App. 1986) (barn located 100 yards from residence is within curtilage); State v. Fierge, 673 S. W. 2d 855, 856 (Mo. App. 1984) ("[C]urtilage includes all outbuildings used in connection with the residence, such as garages, sheds, barns, yards, and lots connected with or in the close vicinity of the residence"); State v. Simpson, 639 S. W. 2d 230, 232 (Mo. App. 1982) (same); Luman v. Oklahoma, supra (same); Bunn v. State, 153 Ga. App. 270, 272, 265 S. E. 2d 88, 90 (1980) (“[c]urtilage' includes the yards and grounds of a particular address, its garages, barns, buildings, etc."); State v. Vicars, 207 Neb. 325, 330, 299 N. W. 2d 421, 425 (1980) (calf shed located 100 feet from the house and separated from it by chain link fence which surrounded the yard was within curtilage); State v. Browning, 28 N. C. App. 376, 379, 221 S. E. 2d 375, 377 (1976) (curtilage of the home includes "at least the yard around the dwelling house as well as the area occupied by barns, cribs, and other outbuildings'") (quoting State v. Frizzelle, 243 N. C. 49, 51, 89 S. E. 2d 725, 726 (1955)); Norman v. State, 134 Ga. App. 767, 768, 216 S. E. 2d 644, 645 (1975) (truck containing moonshine liquor located 200 feet from farmhouse and 100 feet from barn was within curtilage); Brinlee v. State, 403 P. 2d 253, 256 (Okla. Crim. App. 1965) (cattle located 100 yards from home in a lot adjacent to the barn were within curtilage); State v. Lee, 120 Ore. 643, 648, 253 P. 533, 534 (1927) ("Premises other than dwellings have 294 BRENNAN, J., dissenting been held within the protection of the Fourth Amendment[,] for example a barn. As construed by the courts from the earliest to the latest times the words 'dwelling' or 'dwellinghouse' have been construed to include not only the main but all the cluster of buildings convenient for the occupants of the premises, generally described as within the curtilage"). Federal courts, too, have held that barns, like other rural outbuildings, lie within the curtilage of the farmhouse. See United States v. Berrong, 712 F. 2d 1370, 1374 (CA11 1983) (“[t]he ‘outer limits of the curtilage' have been expressly defined to be 'the outer walls of the extreme outbuildings'") (quoting United States v. Williams, 581 F. 2d 451, 454 (CA5 1978)); Rosencranz v. United States, 356 F. 2d 310, 313 (CA1 1966) (barn located an unknown distance from house and separated from it by a driveway deemed within curtilage); Walker v. United States, supra (barn located 70 to 80 yards from house, separated from house by private driveway, and surrounded by separate fence is within curtilage); United States v. Swann, 377 F. Supp. 1305, 1306 (Md. 1974) (barns and outbuildings on farm were part of curtilage); United States v. King, 305 F. Supp. 630, 634 (ND Miss. 1969) (barns and other outbuildings of unknown distance from house within curtilage). Thus, case law demonstrates that a barn is an integral part of a farm home and therefore lies within the curtilage. The Court's opinion provides no justification for its indifference to the weight of state and federal precedent. The above-cited authority also reveals the infirmities in the Court's application of its four-part test. First, the distance between the house and the barn does not militate against the barn or barnyard's presence in the curtilage. Many of the cases cited involve a barn separated from a residence by a distance in excess of 60 yards. Second, the cases make evident that the configuration of fences is not determinative of the status of an outbuilding. Here, where the barn was connected to the house by a "well walked" and a "well driven" BRENNAN, J., dissenting 480 U. S. path, App. to Supp. to Pet. for Cert. 51a, and was clustered with the farmhouse and other outbuildings in a clearing surrounded by woods, the presence of intervening fences fades into irrelevance. The third factor in the test-the nature of the uses to which the area is put-has been badly misunderstood and misapplied by the Court. The Court reasons that, because the barn and barnyard were not actually in domestic use, they were not within the curtilage. This reveals a misunderstanding of the level of generality at which the constitutional inquiry must proceed and is flatly inconsistent with the Court's analysis in Oliver. In Oliver, the Court held that, as a general matter, the open fields "are unlikely to provide the setting for activities whose privacy is sought to be protected by the Fourth Amendment." 466 U. S., at 179, n. 10. The Court expressly refused to do a case-by-case analysis to ascertain whether, on occasion, an individual's expectation of privacy in a certain activity in an open field should be protected. Id., at 181. In the instant case, the Court is confronted with the general rule that a barn is in domestic use. To be consistent with Oliver, the Court should refuse to do a case-bycase analysis of the expectation of privacy in any particular barn and follow the general rule that a barn is in domestic What should be relevant here, as in Oliver, is the typical use of an area or structure. The Court's willingness to generalize about the absence of a privacy interest in the open fields and unwillingness to generalize about the existence of a privacy interest in a barn near a residence are manifestly inconsistent and reflect a hostility to the purpose of the Fourth Amendment. use. Moreover, the discovery that Dunn's barn was actually used as a drug laboratory is irrelevant to the question whether the area is typically in domestic use. No one would contend that, absent exigent circumstances, the police could intrude upon a home without a warrant to search for a drug 294 BRENNAN, J., dissenting manufacturing operation. The Fourth Amendment extends that same protection to outbuildings in the curtilage of the home. Even accepting that courts should do a case-by-case inquiry regarding the use of buildings within the curtilage, the Court's analysis is faulty. The Court finds it significant that, because of the strong odor and the noise of a motor emanating from the barn, the officers knew that the barn was not in domestic use. But these Government agents were already within the curtilage when they detected the odor of phenylacetic acid. They were wandering about in the area between the barns and the farmhouse, an area that is itself part of the curtilage. The Court cannot abrogate the general rule that a barn is in the curtilage with evidence gathered after the intrusion has occurred.' Finally, neither the smell of the chemicals nor the sound of the motor running would remove the protection of the Fourth Amendment from an otherwise protected structure. A barn, like a home, may simultaneously be put to domestic and nondomestic uses, even the manufacture of drugs. Dual use does not strip a home or any building within the curtilage of Fourth Amendment protection. As this Court said in Taylor v. United States, 286 U. S. 1, 6 (1932), where a garage adjacent to a city residence and within its curtilage was searched for illegal alcohol, "[p]rohibition officers may rely on a distinctive odor as a physical fact indicative of possible crime; but its presence alone does not strip the owner of a building of constitutional guarantees against unreasonable 'Cf. United States v. Mullin, 329 F. 2d 295, 298 (CA4 1964) (“We are not dissuaded from this view [that the smokehouse was part of the curtilage] by testimony of Government witnesses that after entering the smokehouse they found it to be in a dilapidated condition, unfit (in their opinion) for the storage of meat. The critical moment was the appearance of the smokehouse before entry; subsequent observations as to its condition are irrelevant. See also United States v. Di Re, 332 U. S. 581... (1948)") (emphasis added). BRENNAN, J., dissenting 480 U. S. search." What the evidence cited by the Court might suggest is that the DEA agents had probable cause to enter the barn or barnyard before they made any unconstitutional intrusion. If so-and I do not concede it-they should have obtained a warrant. With regard to the fourth factor of the curtilage test, I find astounding the Court's conclusion that "[r]espondent did little to protect the barn area from observation by those standing in the open fields." Ante, at 303. Initially, I note that the fenced area immediately adjacent to the barn in this case is not part of the open fields, but is instead part of the curtilage and an area in which Dunn had a reasonable expectation of privacy. See infra, at 314-319. Second, Dunn in fact took elaborate measures to ensure his privacy. He locked his driveway, fenced in his barn, and covered its open end with a locked gate and fishnetting. The Court of Appeals found that "[t]o see inside the barn it was necessary to stand immediately next to the netting. From as little as a few feet distant, visibility into the barn was obscured by the netting and slatting." 766 F. 2d, at 883. The Fourth Amendment does not require the posting of a 24-hour guard to preserve an expectation of privacy. The Court of Appeals correctly concluded that Dunn's barn and barnyard were within the curtilage of the farmhouse. This Court's reversal of that determination reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of the typical role of a barn in rural domestic life.3 'In addition, the sound of a motor running is not inherently inconsistent with the use of the barn for domestic purposes. Household activities on a farm may differ from those conducted in an urban apartment, but they retain their domestic character. A barn is an integral part of a particular way of life, and its many standard uses are part of a distinctive domestic economy. This case bears out the prediction made in Oliver v. United States, 466 U. S. 170, 196, and n. 20 (1984) (MARSHALL, J., dissenting), that police officers making warrantless entries upon private land will be obliged "to make on-the-spot judgments as to how far the curtilage extends, and to |