Hotop v. City of San Jose, No. 18-16995 (9th Cir. 2020)
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The Ninth Circuit affirmed the district court's dismissal of plaintiffs' 42 U.S.C. 1983 action alleging that certain provisions of the City of San Jose's 2017 Ordinance and implementing regulations, pertaining to the City's Apartment Rent Ordinance, violated plaintiffs' Fourth, Fifth, and Fourteenth Amendment rights, as well as the Contracts Clause. The challenged provisions of the Ordinance and Regulations require landlords to disclose information about rent stabilized units to the City and condition landlords' ability to increase rents on providing that information.
The panel held that plaintiffs have not plausibly alleged that the challenged provisions effect a search and thus their Fourth Amendment claim fails. In this case, plaintiffs offered no factual allegations plausibly suggesting that they maintain a reasonable expectation of privacy in information that, generally speaking, they already disclose to the City in other contexts. The panel also held that plaintiffs failed to raise a colorable Fifth Amendment takings claim, a Contracts Clause claim, an equal protection claim, and substantive and procedural due process claims. Finally, the Ordinance does not violate the "unconstitutional conditions" doctrine as enunciated in Koontz v. St. Johns River Water Management District, 570 U.S. 595 (2013).
Court Description: Civil Rights. The panel affirmed the district court’s dismissal of an action alleging that certain provisions of the City of San Jose’s 2017 Ordinance and implementing regulations, pertaining to the City’s Apartment Rent Ordinance, violated plaintiffs’ Fourth, Fifth, and Fourteenth Amendment rights, as well as the Contracts Clause. The challenged provisions and regulations require landlords to disclose information about rent stabilized units to the City and condition landlords’ ability to increase rents on providing that information. Specifically, landlords are required to complete an annual registration of their rent stabilized units, re-register whenever a tenant vacates a rent- stabilized unit, and comply with certain requirements when offering to buy out a tenant’s lease. The panel first held that plaintiffs failed to adequately allege that they have a reasonable expectation of privacy in the information contained in the business records at issue. HOTOP V. CITY OF SAN JOSE 3 The panel noted that the complaint did not contain any factual allegations distinguishing the information at issue in this case from the similar information landlords already provide to the City in other contexts under regulations whose validity has not been challenged. Because plaintiffs had not plausibly alleged that the challenged provisions effected a search, their Fourth Amendment claim failed. The panel held that the ordinance did not work any type of per se taking, for example by a physical invasion or by depriving the property owner of all beneficial use of the property. Thus, any takings claim had to be judged under the multi-factor test enunciated in Penn Central Transportation Co. v. New York City, 438 U.S. 104 (1978). The panel agreed with the district court that the operative complaint alleged no facts that would plausibly assert a regulatory taking. The panel determined that plaintiffs failed to state a Contacts Clause claim. The panel further rejected plaintiffs’ equal protection claim and the substantive and procedural due process claims. Finally, the panel determined that the 2017 Ordinance did not violate the “unconstitutional conditions” doctrine, as enunciated in Koontz v. St. Johns River Water Management District, 570 U.S. 595 (2013). Concurring in part II and concurring in the result, Judge Bennett stated that he would deny plaintiffs’ Fourth Amendment claim because the City had conducted no Fourth Amendment search. The Supreme Court’s Fourth Amendment jurisprudence has consistently found that government collection of information effects a search only when it involves some physical intrusion or its functional equivalent. Judge Bennett fully concurred with the 4 HOTOP V. CITY OF SAN JOSE majority’s opinion that the remaining claims also lacked merit.
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