State v. Warren, 439 P.3d 357

Warren operated a commercial dog kennel on her residential property, publicly advertised and previously licensed; county inspections occurred after her license expired and complaints about barking.
Three inspections in 2016 (scheduled with Warren) by county health/animal-control officials and a veterinarian revealed crowded, unsanitary conditions, underweight and untreated animals, and incomplete vaccination records.
After the third inspection authorities sought a criminal investigation and Detective Hall obtained a search warrant; animals were seized and Warren was charged with multiple felony and misdemeanor animal-cruelty counts.
Warren moved to suppress evidence from the three warrantless inspections; the district court denied suppression, concluding no reasonable privacy expectation in the commercial kennel operation under the county ordinance.
At trial the State used a peremptory strike to remove the only Hispanic prospective juror; Warren raised a Batson challenge, which the district court denied. Warren was convicted; the court imposed statutory costs under §45-8-211(3), MCA, including contracted sheltering and lost revenue.

Issue	Plaintiff's Argument	Defendant's Argument	Held
1. Motion to suppress: were warrantless kennel inspections unlawful searches?	Warren: inspections were searches under the Fourth Amendment and required warrants.	State: inspections were administrative under a county kennel-licensing ordinance for a closely regulated activity and fit Burger three-part test.	Court: inspections were administrative, dog breeding/kennels are closely regulated, ordinance satisfies Burger criteria; suppression denied.
2. Batson challenge to peremptory strike of Hispanic juror	Warren: prosecutor struck juror based on race; prosecutor’s explanation was pretextual.	State: struck juror because prosecutor had not questioned several veniremembers and struck those not questioned; facially race-neutral.	Court: although district court gave the wrong rationale, the record supports the State’s race-neutral explanation and Warren failed to prove pretext; Batson denied.
3. Calculation of statutory costs under §45-8-211(3)	Warren: contracted sheltering costs were unavoidable county expenses; lost-revenue award was speculative.	State: costs (veterinary, food, contracted sheltering, overtime, travel, lost revenue) were reasonable and tied to Warren’s conduct.	Court: costs were supported by evidence; court reduced some items and imposed $67,432.42 in statutory costs; affirmed.

New York v. Burger, 482 U.S. 691 (administrative-search exception for closely regulated industries)
Katz v. United States, 389 U.S. 347 (reasonable expectation of privacy test)
Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79 (peremptory strikes cannot be race-based)
Purkett v. Elem, 514 U.S. 765 (facial validity of prosecutor’s race-neutral explanation in Batson framework)
Hernandez v. New York, 500 U.S. 352 (race-neutral explanations taken at face value at second Batson step)
Powers v. Ohio, 499 U.S. 400 (Batson applies beyond defendant’s own race)
Arizona v. Gant, 556 U.S. 332 (warrantless searches presumptively unreasonable)
Florida v. Jardines, 569 U.S. 1 (heightened privacy interest in the home)