No Fourth Amendment Protection In Hotel Registry Records.

City ordinance requires hotel operators to maintain certain registry information concerning guests, including their names, addresses and vehicle information, and to make the information available to police officers upon request. Motel operator challenged the ordinance, arguing it amounted to an unreasonable invasion of his private business records without a warrant. Both the trial court and the Ninth Circuit rejected the challenge, finding registry information was not private from the operator’s perspective and there was no reasonable expectation of privacy.  Patel v. City of Los Angeles (Ninth Circuit; July 17, 2012) (Case No. 08-56567).