A Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court judge has ruled that Pottstown’s ordinance allowing officials to enter rental homes using “administrative warrants” without showing probable cause is unconstitutional. The decision stems from a lawsuit brought by residents Dottie and Omar Rivera and their landlord, Steve Camburn, with support from the Institute for Justice, who argued that the ordinance that forced tenants and landlords to open their doors for random inspections, often in search of code violations, was illegal. Judge Stacy Wallace found that the administrative warrants were based only on general suspicions and violated Article 1, Section 8, of the state Constitution. Federal courts have previously upheld similar searches of rental units by code inspectors, but the Pennsylvania Constitution is more restrictive of privacy rights than the U.S. Constitution. The ruling overturns years of local practice and follows earlier legal challenges dating back to 2017. Read more at Pottstown Patch.
Source: Pottstown Patch; 12/9/2025