Court Opinion

ID: 9854672
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 06:11:18.721509+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:23:13.178839
License: Public Domain

IRWIN, Justice
(dissenting in part).
I am unable to concur in that part of the opinion which relates to Jack’s Supper Club, Ltd.’s, contention that the ordinance in question authorizes private clubs to be searched without a search warrant. In my judgment, the question of search is not involved as the ordinance complained of neither authorizes nor does it attempt to authorize a search without a warrant. Section 13 of the ordinance provides for, “The right of entry and inspection * * ”, and nothing more.
The production, sale and consumption of alcoholic beverages have been a matter of governmental surveillance and the ordinance involved regulates private clubs which permit the consumption of alcoholic beverages. It was enacted for the preservation of the .public health, peace and safety.
A private club is operated for the benefit and profit of the club and the fraternal and social benefits, if any, of the members are incidental. And it could not be seriously contended that a private club which permits the consumption of alcoholic beverages is necessarily conducive to either the health, morals, peace, safety or general welfare of the general public.
*297Municipalities, in the exercise of proper police powers, may enact ordinances to preserve the public health, peace and safety of the public, and an inspection ordinance enacted for such purpose of ascertaining if the public health, peace and safety of the public is being preserved has the presumption of being valid. In my judgment, an ordinance requiring a licensee to submit to an inspection to ascertain if the public health, peace and safety of the people is preserved and the law complied with does not contravene the letter or the intent of the Fourteenth Amendment of the Federal Constitution or Article II, Sec. 30, of the Oklahoma Constitution which prohibit unreasonable .search and seizures.
Plaintiff in error’s contention is that in order to obtain a license it is necessary that it consent to an unreasonable search and seizure. The fact that an unreasonable search and seizure may be made by the municipality, acting by and through its authorized officers or agents, in exercising its authority to enter and inspect the premises, should not and could not form a basis for holding the ordinance unconstitutional. In my judgment, the plaintiff, in consenting to the municipalities right to enter and inspect, does not waive his constitutional rights which protect it against unreasonable search and seizure. If and when an unreasonable search and seizure occurs and the legality thereof is questioned, such will then present a judicial question to be determined in view of all the facts and circumstances under which the search or seizure was made. See Branson v. State, Okl., 270 P.2d 362.
I therefore respectfully dissent to that portion of the opinion relating to the right of entry and inspection, as the same has been considered and promulgated by a majority of my associates. However, in my judgment, the ordinance is valid and the same should be upheld by this Court.
I am authorized to state that BLACKBIRD, V. C. J., and JACKSON, J., concur in the views herein expressed.