Court Opinion

ID: 9743056
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 21:24:47.204845+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:22:24.835359
License: Public Domain

McCORMICK, Justice
(dissenting).
The General Assembly did not merely authorize the City of Ames to make housing inspections. First, the statute required Ames either to adopt a housing code or be deemed to have adopted a uniform code. § 364.17(2). Then the statute provided:
A city which adopts or is subject to a housing code under this section shall adopt enforcement procedures, which *185shall include a program for regular rental inspections, rental inspections upon receipt of complaints, and certification of inspected rental housing....
§ 364.17(3) (emphasis added). Now the court holds that the General Assembly did not intend for courts to have authority to issue administrative warrants to permit inspections when an inspector is refused admittance to premises. As in Commissioner of Labor v. Sulhoff, 360 N.W.2d 722 (Iowa 1985), I would find implied statutory authority for courts to issue warrants based on the legislative command that inspections be made. Otherwise the purpose of the statute is nullified.
Any inspection, of course, would have to meet the probable cause and reasonableness criteria in Marshall v. Barlow’s, Inc., 436 U.S. 307, 98 S.Ct. 1816, 56 L.Ed.2d 305 (1978), and Camara v. Municipal Court of City and County of San Francisco, 387 U.S. 523, 87 S.Ct. 1727, 18 L.Ed.2d 930 (1967). I find it puzzling that this court now recognizes “general equity jurisdiction” of the district court to order inspections, where all of the allegedly sensitive policy decisions are equally involved, but continues to deny the authority of a court to do the same thing in carrying out the Constitution.
I recognize that this case is controlled by Sulhoff hut dissent again to emphasize the abdication of judicial responsibility in the court’s holding and to underscore the frustration of obvious legislative intent that results. The problem deserves legislative attention.