2482

LAWS OF MARYLAND

Ch. 240

that, absent an emergency or lawful consent, a search
warrant is required for an administrative inspection of
private dwellings and, except for businesses that are
extensively regulated, for business premises. For closely
regulated businesses, the Supreme Court has held that a
warrantless search is reasonable for a business that has a
long history of regulation, as e.g., the liquor business,
Colonnade Catering Corp. v. United States, 397 U.S. 72
(1970), and the firearms business, United States v. Biswell,
406 U.S. 311 (1972).

Most recently, in Donovan v. Dewey,____ U.S. ____

(June 17, 1981), the Court permitted the warrantless
inspection of a stone quarry on the basis that the statutory
inspection program, in terms of the certainty and regularity
of its application, provided a constitutionally adequate
substitute for a warrant. The Court noted, in Donovan, that
the pervasiveness and regularity of the federal regulation
ultimately determines whether a warrant is necessary to
render an inspection program reasonable under the Fourth
Amendment.

As to private homes, absent consent or an emergency, a
warrantless inspection is unconstitutional. Steagald v.

United States, ____ U.S. ____ (1981); Payton v. New York,

445 U.S. 573 (1980).

There are also constitutional issues with regard to
administrative search warrants, or inspection warrants. The
Court of Appeals in Fred W. Allnutt, Inc. v. Commissioner of
Labor and Industry, 278 Md. 35 (1980) in remanding the case
to the circuit court for consideration of the merits of the
appeal, reviewed the application of Fourth Amendment
principles to administrative search warrants. In Camara v.
Municipal Court, 387 U.S. 523 (1967), the Supreme Court had
not permitted a warrantless administrative search of an
apartment by a housing inspector, but in Camara and its
companion case See v. City of Seattle, 387 U.S. 541 (1967),
did indicate that probable cause in the criminal sense was
not a constitutional requirement for obtaining a warrant.
However, the Supreme Court "did not clearly indicate what
showing of probable cause would comply with the
reasonableness standard". Allnutt, supra, at 43. The
Supreme Court in Marshall v. Barlow's, Inc., 436 U.S. 307
(1978), considered the administrative probable cause
necessary for issuing, an administrative search warrant.
Barlow is interpreted to require for a finding of probable
cause that: (1) a reasonable legislative or administrative
inspection program exists; and (2) the proposed inspection
comes within that program.

Allnutt, supra, at 53, indicated that Article 89, § 2A
of the Code, which permits the issuance of certain
inspection warrants not based on probable cause, would need
to be examined to determine whether it is facially