Horton v. California - Significance

This case removed the inadvertence requirement from one of the exceptions to the Fourth Amendment's call for a search warrant that specifies the items to be searched for and seized. Previously, the U.S. Supreme Court held that in order for the police to seize evidence not mentioned in a warrant, they must find it inadvertently and it must be in plain view. However, in Horton v. California the Court argued that the inadvertence requirement was unnecessary and that the other warrant requirements would prevent police abuse of the warrant, even though the Fourth Amendment requires the warrant to describe all items on some interpretations. Furthermore, this decision granted police greater freedom for obtaining evidence, as long as they met the conditions imposed by the Constitution and the Supreme Court's rulings.