What is the current state of the law with respect to the search of a vehicle in the curtilage of a private home?

The protection of the Fourth Amendment extends to the curtilage of a private home, which is the land that surrounds and is associated with the home. (Oliver v. United States (1984) 466 U.S. 170, 180 [curtilage is the area to which extends the intimate activity associated with the sanctity of the home and the privacies of life].) We need not address the intersection of the protection afforded to a home and its curtilage, on the one hand, and the automobile exception, on the other. The structure in this case was not a private home but rather an apartment building owned by appellant and inhabited by others. We therefore need not, and do not, express a view about the relationship, if any, that there may be between the concept of the curtilage around a private home and the search of an automobile located within the curtilage.

In this case, the uncontradicted evidence is that the officers were told that appellant had pointed a gun at Jones during a dispute between the two men and that Jones saw appellant put the gun in the trunk of his car, the latter being a fact that appellant's own statement confirmed. By any measure, this constituted probable cause to search the trunk of the car. This is all that was required. (California v. Acevedo (1991) 500 U.S. 565, 569.)

We therefore find no error in the denial of appellant's suppression motion.