Regulatory Searches and Businesses Flashcards
New York v. Burger
NY law that required the owners of car junkyards and related businesses to maintain records of cars and major parts in their possession and to make these records, as well as the car and parts, available for warrantless inspection by cops during regular business hrs.
Holding: allowed warrantless searches if 3 conditions were met: [NY met]
- (1) Substantial government interest;
- (2) Inspections were necessary to pursue the regulatory regime; and
- (3) Substitute for warrant is particular enough and restricted inspections in time, place, and scope
City of LA v. Patel (2015)
LA ordinance provided police with the authority to inspect motel register records w/out advance notice, on pain of arrest if a motel owner refused to comply. Motel owners required to make their registries available to police - required to record tons of info about their guests including name, address, their vehicle info, the rate charged and room number, cash payment etc. Owners could be guilty of a misdemeanor punished by 1,000$ fine and up to 6 months in jail.
code facially unconstitutional bc it penalizes hotel operators for declining to turn over their records w/o affording them any opp for pre-compliance review. Court limited administrative inspections occurring “without notice” to a narrow subset of cases (only those involving businesses “pos[ing] a clear and significant risk to public welfare”).
