The U.S. Supreme Court ruled for consumer privacy 5-4 today in their opinion for California v. Patel. The Court found a Los Angeles law unconstitutional that required hotels to maintain a guest register subject to police inspection at any time – meaning without a warrant. The law was designed to crack down on human trafficking and related crimes. While the Supreme Court found the law overbroad in this instance, the majority opinion provided guidance on how the city could redraft the law within constitutional bounds. For example, “the city could issue administrative subpoenas for the registers, which a hotel could challenge before a ‘neutral decision maker.'”
Source: Supreme Court Strikes Down Los Angeles Law on Police Access to Hotel Registers – WSJ
