The Supreme Court said Monday it will decide whether Los Angeles police can enter hotels and motels and demand to check the guest registry without a search warrant.
The justices voted to hear the city's appeal of a ruling that struck down a guest-registry ordinance that a group of motel owners complained violated their privacy and resulted in surprise late-night police checks.
The case could yield an important constitutional ruling on the government's power to check private business records without a search warrant. The issue is being fought out in a different context in the dispute over the government's power to collect private phone records to search for possible terrorist plots.
Like dozens of cities across the nation, Los Angeles has an ordinance that requires hotel and motel operators to keep records on their guests. The ordinance says these records "shall be made available to any officer of the Los Angeles Police Department for inspection."
But the group of motel owners went to court and complained about police searches at all hours of the day and night. Many of them said they ran their motels as a family business and that they objected to the late-night inspections.
An attorney for the motel operators said some of them had little command of the English language and felt "intimidated" by the police.
Last year, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, in a 7-4 decision, said the surprise checks violated the 4th Amendment's ban on unreasonable searches and seizures. The judges cited recent Supreme Court rulings limiting police searches on private property.
In their appeal, the city's attorneys said the police power to check the guest registries was needed to enforce the laws against prostitution and drug dealing. They complained of "parking meter motels" that serve as "crime magnets" in some neighborhoods.
The court will hear arguments in the case, City of Los Angeles vs. Patel, early next year.
Twitter: @DavidGSavage
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