Chalking, Parking Tickets and the Fourth Amendment: The Ninth Circuit Disagrees
In Verdun v. City of San Diego, 51 F.4th 1033, 1035 (9th Cir. 2022), the Ninth Circuit stated:
“We are asked to decide whether the longstanding practice of chalking tires for parking enforcement purposes violates the Fourth Amendment. It does not. Even assuming the temporary dusting of chalk on a tire constitutes a Fourth Amendment ‘search,’ it falls within the administrative search exception to the warrant requirement. Complementing a broader program of traffic control, tire chalking is reasonable in its scope and manner of execution.”
The Ninth Circuit emphasized it assumed without deciding that chalking is a search. It also observed that it “respectfully” disagreed with the Sixth Circuit’s decision in Taylor v. City of Saginaw, 11 F.4th 483 (6th Cir. 2021), which took the position, among other things, that tire chalking is a search that is not subject to the administrative search exception. Consequently, according to the Sixth Circuit, chalking followed by a parking ticket violates the Fourth Amendment.
Judge Bumatay dissented, 51 F.4th at 1048, arguing that the original understanding of the Fourth Amendment demonstrates that the city’s chalking policy was both a “search” and “unreasonable.”
I discussed Taylor several years ago in a post which you may want to check out: https://nahmodlaw.com/2020/09/07/chalking-tires-parking-tickets-community-caretaking-and-the-fourth-amendment/
As noted, the Ninth Circuit here, unlike the Sixth Circuit in Taylor, did not have to decide the “search” issue because it ultimately ruled that even if chalking is a “search,” the Fourth Amendment is not violated.
Nahmod Law 