Bell Nunnally Partner Kartik R. Singapura and associates Laura K. Lavernia and Danielle Canfield Vorbrodt filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas on behalf of multifamily property owners. They are asserting that the City of Dallas’s reliance on a code provision used to conduct property inspections without an administrative warrant is unconstitutional – specifically contrary to the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition against unreasonable search and seizure.

In a Law360 article covering the suit, Singapura is quoted describing the City of Dallas’s response to the filing, “We’re in constant communication right now with the city about this issue. We certainly don’t think the city is going to take the position that the city code somehow trumps the U.S. Constitution and the rights afforded under the Fourth Amendment.”