Supreme Court tosses LA ordinance giving police access to hotel records

The Supreme Court ruled on Monday that a Los Angeles ordinance that lets police view hotel guest registries without a warrant violates the privacy rights of business owners, taking away what the city called a vital tool to fight prostitution, drug trafficking and illegal gambling at budget hotels and motels. 

In a 5-4 decision, the justices upheld an appeals court ruling that struck down the ordinance, saying it violated Fourth Amendment protections against unlawful searches and seizures.

More than 100 other jurisdictions across the United States have similar laws that could be affected by the court's ruling, the city's lawyers said in court papers.

Los Angeles appealed after the San Francisco–based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the ordinance in December 2013.

The ordinance requires hotel and motel operators to collect detailed information on each guest, including name and address, car model, license plate number and method of payment.

The records are available for inspection by the police department at any time, without a warrant.

The city called the law crucial to efforts to reduce criminal activity, especially in so-called parking meter motels that charge by the hour and are often used for prostitution and other crimes.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor, writing for the court, said the ordinance penalizes hotel operators "for declining to turn over their records without affording them any opportunity for precompliance review."

She noted that hotel operators may be arrested on the spot if they refuse to give police access to their records. As such, the law could be used "as a pretext to harass hotel operators and their guests," she wrote.

The court's four liberals were joined in the ruling by Justice Anthony Kennedy, a conservative who often casts the decisive vote in close cases.

In dissent, Justice Antonin Scalia said the law "is eminently reasonable," given the use of cheap motels as places to stash migrants who have been smuggled across the border and as rendezvous points for child sex workers and their clients.

"The warrantless inspection requirement provides a necessary incentive for motels to maintain their registers thoroughly and accurately: They never know when law enforcement might drop by to inspect," Scalia wrote. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas also dissented.

Sotomayor noted that police will still be able to make surprise inspections by getting a warrant or in instances in which an officer suspects the hotel operator might tamper with the registry. 

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