For Immediate Release: November 9, 2012
Rutherford Institute Asks U.S. Supreme Court to Affirm Landlord’s Right
to be Free From Warrantless Searches of Private Residences
PHILADELPHIA, Penn. — Attorneys for The Rutherford Institute have filed
a petition asking the U.S. Supreme Court to protect a Pennsylvania
landlord’s right to be free from a warrantless home inspection. The
Borough of Lansdowne has imposed the warrantless search as a
prerequisite for acquiring a license to rent other properties, a
licensing scheme which was recently affirmed by the United States Court
of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Institute attorneys argue that the
ordinance imposes an “unconstitutional condition” requiring citizens to
either waive their Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable
searches and seizures or surrender their fundamental private property
rights.
The Rutherford Institute’s petition in
Marcavage v. Lansdowne is available at www.rutherford.org.
“The sanctity of one’s home should not be undermined for any reason,
least of all because of bureaucratic policy-making,” said John W.
Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute. “Homeowners, whether
or not they own rental property, have every right to be free from
unreasonable searches by government agents.”
On May 7, 2003, the Borough of Lansdowne, Penn., adopted Ordinance
1188, which requires anyone owning rental properties in Lansdowne to
obtain an annual rental license. In order to obtain a license, a
property owner has to arrange for a rental license inspection by
Lansdowne’s Code Enforcement Division. The scope of the inspection
includes the exterior and interior areas of the rental unit.
Furthermore, in making such an inspection, a Lansdowne Code Enforcement
Officer inspects any
owner-occupied portion of a rental property, including its interior.
Michael Marcavage owns two properties in Lansdowne, each of which
contains two units with separate entrances. Marcavage maintains his
principal residence at one of the properties, in the unit on the ground
floor, with the unit on the second floor leased to a tenant. Both units
in the second house are leased. Believing the rental ordinance to be
unconstitutional, Marcavage has never requested a rental license
inspection.
Moreover, he has repeatedly contacted Borough officials to
express his objections to the rental inspection process—particularly the
lack of a warrant requirement for the inspection, especially as it
pertains to his personal residence. However, on September 30, 2009,
Borough officials posted identical notices at both of Marcavage’s
properties, one on the door of his personal residence and the other on
the common exterior door of his fully rented property. The notices
declared that it was “unlawful for landlord to collect any rent, use, or
occupy this building” until a rental license was obtained. As a result,
Marcavage felt compelled to find alternate lodging for himself until he
could challenge the license and inspection requirements in court.
In October 2009, Marcavage filed a Fourth Amendment lawsuit in federal
district court, challenging the ordinance. In October 2011, the district
court ruled that the rental inspection ordinance did not violate
Marcavage’s Fourth Amendment rights because the only penalty for
refusing a rental inspection is denial of a rental license. In their
petition to the U.S. Supreme Court, Rutherford Institute attorneys argue
that the inspections of non-rental property constitute unreasonable
governmental intrusion into one’s home.
Affiliate attorney Mark Jakubik
is assisting the Institute in defending Marcavage’s Fourth and
Fourteenth Amendment rights.
This Press Release is also available at www.rutherford.org
Click Here to read Rutherford Institute’s petition in Marcavage v. Lansdowne.
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