California, United States of America
The following excerpt is from People v. Ortiz, 32 Cal.App.4th 286, 38 Cal.Rptr.2d 59 (Cal. App. 1995):
However, it was not enough that the contraband was in plain view. Before Officer Forsythe could enter the hotel room to arrest defendant and seize the tinfoil bindles containing heroin, he needed to have a lawful right of access to defendant and the heroin. (Horton v. California (1990) 496 U.S. 128, 137 and fn. 7, 110 S.Ct. 2301, 2308 and fn. 7, 110 L.Ed.2d 112, 123.) In other words, even though the contraband was in plain view, Forsythe had to have either a warrant or legal justification to make a warrantless entry into the hotel room.
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