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CA1: Controlled access to neighborhoods under PR law does not violate Fourth Amendment

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

Controlled access to neighborhoods, permitted under Puerto Rican law, that had the effect of excluding Jehovah’s Witnesses from entering neighborhoods did not violate the Fourth Amendment. Denial of access was not the same as a seizure. Watchtower Bible & Tract Soc’y of N.Y. v. De Jesús, 2011 U.S. App. LEXIS 2343 (1st Cir. February 7, 2011): To abate crime, Puerto Rico adopted a Controlled Access Law, P.R. Laws Ann. tit. 23, §§ 64-64h (2008), allowing local entities (called “urbanizations”), organized by the community but approved by the municipality, to control street access to areas within towns that have voted in favor of such plans. Appellants are two corporations operated by the Governing Body of Jehovah’s Witnesses 1 that challenged in federal district court both the statute and its application...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on February 09, 2011 (boomark / email).