is later discovered to not have authority over the property in question. A telling case on this subject is Stoner v. California, in which the Court held that police officers could not rely in good faith upon the apparent authority of a hotel clerk to consent to the search of a guest's room. Plain view and open fields According to the plain view doctrine as defined in Coolidge v. New Hampshire (1971), if an officer is lawfully present, he may seize objects that are in "plain view." However, the officer must have had probable cause to believe the objects are contraband. What's more, the criminality of the object in plain view must be obvious by its very nature. In Arizona v. Hicks, the Supreme Court held that an officer stepped beyond the plain view doctrine when he moved a turntable in order to view its serial number to confirm that the turntable was stolen. "A search is a search," proclaimed the Court, "even if it happens to disclose nothing but the bottom of a turntable." Similarly, "open fields" such as pastures, open water, and woods may be searched without a warrant, on the ground that conduct occurring therein would have no reasonable expectation of privacy. The doctrine was first articulated by the Court in Hester v. United States (1924), which stated that "the special protection accorded by the Fourth Amendment to the people in their 'persons, houses, papers, and effects' is not extended to the open fields." In Oliver v. United States (1984), the police ignored a "no trespassing" sign and a fence, trespassed onto the suspect's land without a warrant, followed a path for hundreds of feet, and discovered a field of marijuana. The Supreme Court ruled that no search had taken place, because there was no privacy expectation regarding an open field: While open fields are not protected by the Fourth Amendment, the curtilage, or outdoor area immediately surrounding the home, is protected. Courts have treated this area as an extension of the house and as such subject to all the privacy protections afforded a person's home (unlike a person's open fields) under the Fourth Amendment. The curtilage is "intimately linked to the home, both physically and psychologically", and is where "privacy expectations are most heightened." However, courts have held aerial surveillance of curtilage not to be included in the protections from unwarranted search so long as the