Supreme Court Declares Warrantless Searches Of Hotel Registries Unconstitutional

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The U.S. Supreme Court struck down warrantless searches of hotel registries in a 5-4 decision on Monday. Justice Sotomayor wrote the majority opinion in the case of City of Los Angeles v. Patel, scoring a victory for privacy advocates, who argued that Los Angeles’ city law violated the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition on unlawful searches without probable cause.

In writing her decision, Sotomayor stated:

A hotel owner who refuses to give an officer access to his or her registry can be arrested on the spot. The court has held that business owners cannot reasonably be put to this kind of choice.

Sotomayor was joined in protecting privacy rights by liberal justices Stephen Breyer, Elena Kagan and Ruth Bader Ginsburg as well as swing justice Anthony Kennedy. The four conservative justices — Chief Justice John Roberts, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Antonin Scalia dissented. Each of them felt the government should have the right to obtain hotel registries without first establishing probable cause.

In his dissent, Justice Scalia argued:

The private pain and public costs imposed by drug dealing, prostitution, and human trafficking are beyond contention, and motels provide an obvious haven for those who trade in human misery.

While conservatives often like to claim that they are the party of less government, the conservative justices on the Supreme Court aligned themselves with more government intrusion into the lives of individuals and small business owners. By contrast, the liberals on the court took the side of defending privacy and the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

While reasonable people can disagree on how much information citizens should be required to divulge to law enforcement officers when no probably cause exists, there can be no argument that conservatives on the court have taken the position advocating more government when it comes to matters surrounding personal privacy. Antonin Scalia, in particular, has argued that the state has a right to violate the Bill of Rights because drug dealers and prostitutes might purchase a night in a hotel room, and that alone is reason enough in his mind to disregard the Constitution of the United States.

Keith Brekhus

Keith Brekhus is a progressive American who currently resides in Red Lodge, Montana. He is co-host for the Liberal Fix radio show. He holds a Master’s Degree in Sociology from the University of Missouri. In 2002, he ran for Congress as a Green Party candidate in the state of Missouri. In 2014, he worked as a field organizer for Democrat Ann Kirkpatrick’s successful re-election bid in Arizona’s 1st Congressional District. He can be followed on Twitter @keithbrekhus or on Facebook.