Fourth Amendment

In New York v. Commons West, LLC, No. CV-23-1255 (Mar. 5, 2026), the Appellate Division of New York’s Supreme Court (dun-dun) invalidated a New York statute that forbid property owners from considering a prospective tenant’s source of income when deciding to whom to rent a property. The legislature effectively required owners to “accept Section 8 vouchers and, as a condition of participating in that program, agree to allow search of their properties and records.” Slip op. at 5. The court held this violates the warrant requirement of the Fourth Amendment.
Continue Reading NY App Div: Requiring Property Owners To Accept Section 8 Tenants Violates Fourth Amendment

A newly-filed property rights cert petition worth watching. [Disclosure: this one is from our firm, so we won’t be commenting.] Here are the Questions Presented: “Whether Maine’s requirement that lobstermen place a GPS tracking device on their private fishing vessels and submit to 24/7 surveillance constitutes an unreasonable trespassory search in violation of the Fourth Amendment?”
Continue Reading New 4A Property Rights Cert Petition: Govt GPSing Your Boat Is Warrantless Search

Check out this call for papers from our firm, Pacific Legal Foundation.

The call of the question is intriguing: is there room in Fourth Amendment jurisprudence for a property-base view (as opposed to the prevalent Katz “expectation of privacy” focus now in vogue? After all, the Fourth Amendment mentions things that we classify as property