Problem: An officer suspects that Jim is selling pirated DVD movies. He walks up a sidewalk to Jim's front door, knocks, and when Jim's wife answers, the officer explains his suspicions and asks to search the house. When she says that she's not sure she should let him, he responds, "well, I can always apply for a search warrant,". Jim's wife says that he can go ahead and search the house. He searches the interior of the house and then the back deck, finding nothing. From the deck, he sees a dog kennel 40 feet from the house. He searches that, too, and finds 100 copies of Star Wars that are obviously pirated. Jim is eventually charged and moves to suppress the DVDs.
Answer the following questions:
Is the search of Jim's house and kennel a violation of the 4th Amendment? Why or why not?
Should the officer have left and applied for a search warrant? Why or why not?