CA9: City of L.A. ordinance that hotel guest records are open to police violates Fourth Amendment rights of hotel

City of Los Angeles ordinance requiring hotel operators open their guest records to the police is an unreasonable search and facially invalid under the Fourth Amendment. Patel v. City of Los Angeles, 738 F.3d 1058 (9th Cir. 2013) (7-4). Summary by the court:

The en banc court reversed the district court’s judgment in favor of the City of Los Angeles, and held that Los Angeles Municipal Code § 41.49’s requirement that hotel guest records “shall be made available to any officer of the Los Angeles Police Department for inspection” was facially invalid under the Fourth Amendment insofar as it authorized inspections of the records without affording an opportunity to obtain prior judicial review.

Plaintiffs, who are motel owners in Los Angeles, challenged the provision of § 41.49 authorizing warrantless, on-site inspections of hotel guest records by any police officer. The en banc court held that a police officer’s nonconsensual inspection of hotel guest records under § 41.49 constituted a Fourth Amendment “search.” The en banc court also held that even under the more lenient Fourth Amendment principles governing administrative record inspections, § 41.49 was facially invalid. The en banc court concluded that in order for the city to comply with the Fourth Amendment, it must afford hotel operators an opportunity to challenge the reasonableness of the police officer’s inspection demand in court before penalties for non-compliance were imposed.