## Facts

- Pierce County deputies participated in a “Crime-Free Hotel Motel Program” that encouraged police to review motel guest registries randomly and without individualized suspicion.
- Participating motels required guests to present identification at check-in and kept identifying information on file, but guests were not told police might conduct random registry checks.
- On March 15, 2003, a deputy conducted a random registry check at a Lakewood motel known for frequent criminal incidents.
- The deputy ran guest names through a law-enforcement database and learned Timothy Enrique Jorden was staying there and had two outstanding felony warrants.
- Deputies went to Jorden’s room to execute the warrants; upon entry they saw cocaine in plain view.
- Jorden was charged and convicted of unlawful possession of cocaine based on the cocaine discovered in the room.

## Issues

1. Whether a random, suspicionless police review of a motel guest registry to run warrant checks disturbs a guest’s “private affairs” and constitutes a search under article I, section 7 of the Washington Constitution.
2. If so, whether any warrant exception justified the registry search.
3. Whether evidence discovered after police used the registry information to locate and enter the guest’s room must be suppressed as fruit of the unconstitutional search.

## Decision

- The Washington Supreme Court reversed the Court of Appeals and reversed Jorden’s conviction.
- The court held the random, suspicionless registry review was a search that disturbed private affairs under article I, section 7.
- The search was not justified by a warrant or a valid exception.
- Because the registry check revealed Jorden’s location and set in motion the entry into his room, the cocaine discovered in plain view had to be suppressed.

## Legal Principles

- Article I, section 7 prohibits government disturbance of private affairs without authority of law; the inquiry is whether private affairs were disturbed, not whether privacy expectations were reasonable.
- Police access to motel registry information to determine a person’s lodging location and run warrant checks can implicate a guest’s private affairs.
- Random, suspicionless registry checks for general crime-control purposes require authority of law; absent a warrant or a recognized exception, such checks are unconstitutional.
- Evidence obtained through a causal chain initiated by an unconstitutional search must be suppressed when the unlawfully obtained information directly led police to the evidence.

## Conclusion

Washington’s constitution bars police from conducting random, suspicionless motel guest-registry checks to locate guests and run warrant checks; when such a check leads officers to the guest and to evidence in the room, the evidence must be suppressed and the conviction cannot stand.


State v. Jorden, 160 Wn. 2d 121, 156 P.3d 893 (Wash. 2007)