Judge Susan Dlott rules for Finney Law Firm clients in challenge to Portsmouth residential inspection ordinance

The City of Portsmouth Ohio in 2014 enacted an ordinance requiring an inspection of real property before an owner could rent the same to a tenant.  The 1851 Center for Constitutional Law and the Finney Law Firm challenged that ordinance as being an unconstitutional warrantless search of real property violative of the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Today, Judge Susan J. Dlott agreed, issuing this 17-page Order Granting Plaintiff’s Motion for Partial Motion for Summary Judgment and Granting in Part and Denying in Part Plaintiff’s Motion for Summary Judgment.  You may read that here.

This is a major victory for our clients, for private property rights, for our firm and for the 1851 Center.

 

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