WA: Liquor license compliance check only in public areas was not a “search”

A Washington state ABC compliance check of a licensed establishment that only had officers in open areas was not a search under the constitutions. Dodge City Saloon v. Wash. State Liquor Control Bd., 168 Wn. App. 388, 288 P.3d 343 (2012):

In this case, the Liquor Board’s actions did not constitute a search for Fourth Amendment purposes because the Liquor Board did not violate Dodge City’s privacy interests. Dodge City had no reasonable privacy interest in areas of its licensed premises that it actively invites the public to enter. Barlow’s Inc., 436 U.S. at 315. Even if, as Dodge City argues, it had a subjective reasonable expectation of privacy to exclude persons under 21 years old, which it did not, Dodge City lost that interest when it voluntarily admitted C.M. onto the premises. United States v. Bramble, 103 F.3d 1475, 1478 (9th Cir. 1996) (“Once consent has been obtained from one with authority to give it, any expectation of privacy has been lost.”). Thus, the Liquor Board’s officers did not conduct a “search” when they entered the public portions of Dodge City’s premises and observed only what members of the public could also observe. Likewise, the Liquor Board’s officers did not conduct a “search” when they observed C.M.’s entry into Dodge City from a public street. Accordingly, because there was no “search” in this case, the Liquor Board’s actions do not implicate constitutional considerations and Dodge City has no “search” on which to base a Fourth Amendment or article I, section 7 unreasonable search and seizure claim. Centimark Corp., 129 Wn. App. at 375.