Law allowing cops to inspect hotel guest registries without judge's OK gets Supreme Court review
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear a case challenging a Los Angeles ordinance that allows police to inspect hotel guest registries without getting judicial approval.
A group of hotels challenged the ordinance, which is similar to laws in dozens of cities, the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times report. The San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had struck down the ordinance in a 7-4 en banc ruling in December that said the law violates the Fourth Amendment ban on unreasonable searches.
SCOTUSblog identifies these issues in the case: whether a hotel has an expectation of privacy in a guest registry, whether the Los Angeles law is unconstitutional because it doesn’t provide for judicial review before a police inspection, and whether facial challenges to statutes are permitted under the Fourth Amendment.
If a facial challenge is allowed under the Fourth Amendment, and the hotels succeed on their claim, the statute would be struck down in all cases. A ruling disallowing facial challenges under the Fourth Amendment would mean the statute’s constitutionality could only be challenged in an as-applied challenge that cites facts in the case before the court, SCOTUSblog explains.
The case could result in an important ruling on the government’s power to inspect business records without a warrant, an issue also raised in terrorism cases, the Los Angeles Times says.
The case is Los Angeles v. Patel.
