It’s 2017, Batson D. Belfry is the new POTUS, and is someone I loathe politically. For reasons unknown to me, a Secret Service advance team shows up at my home or business, announcing their intent to sweep the premises in preparation for a Presidential visit.
Not counting the fear of a retaliatory IRS colonoscopy, can I refuse the advance team and the Presidential entourage?
Why wouldn’t you be able to? Your home, no question you can refuse him to enter. Your business- I’d say it depends. I don’t think you could if your business serves the public but if you’ve got your own septic tank cleaning business or the like, why should he be able to enter your office?
Of course. Why wouldn’t you be able to?
ETA: ninja’d.
You can refuse a visit at your home from anyone, except police with a search warrant or probable cause (IANAL, this may not be technically correct but you get the idea).
If you have a business that is not open to the public, like an office, same thing goes.
If you have a business, like a retail shop, that is open to the public then you’re going to have a hard time denying entry to any individual, but you might be able to do so if the denial is not based on the person being a member of a protected class. I am not sure about this one and defer to the real lawyers.
I’m not a lawyer, but I’m positive that “being President” or “being someone with a security entourage” or “being someone whose position and fame can be inherently disruptive to business” are not protected classes. So deny away, even in a retail shop.
You can refuse, and you can make a public display of it. In the Summer of 2004, Pres Bush campaigned in my hometown. My brother put a huge sign in his convenience store window reading, “Bush! Don’t Enter My Store!” The neighborhood loved it, and Bush stayed away. (Not that he was very likely to wander in anyway.)
Also, VP Biden came to town in 2012. My buddy, an engineer, had his plant shut down for the day Biden was there (Secret Service orders). So the Pres and VP know how disruptive their visits are. You have the legal right to turn them away, and I can’t imagine a high ranking politician not honoring that.
The OP really asked two different questions.
You can obviously refuse to let the President into your home or business.
But if the Secret Service shows up and says they want to check your home or office because the President is making a visit in the neighbourhood, I’m pretty sure you can’t refuse them entrance. As long as they’re acting within the scope of their duties (protecting the President) they have pretty broad powers for entry.
The SS can’t enter a private home without consent just because they are “protecting the president.” They frequently do search private homes, but that’s because the homeowners do consent.
(1) Search warrant or warrant exception. Probable cause (and no warrant) is required to arrest, though probable cause is required to obtain a warrant in the first place. Warrant exceptions include consent, exigent circumstances (screaming, gunshots), hot pursuit, and some other more technical rules.
(2) Other than hotels, common carriers, and certain other types of business, most businesses are not subject to the federal Civil Rights Acts and can exclude whoever they like for whatever reason they like. Of course, most states have similar laws that are broader in application. But you more or less got it (though I tell people to avoid the term “protected class”.)
In the real world, a Presidential visit is so disruptive and requires so much preparation and surrounding activity when it occurs that no President would ever go where he or she isn’t assured to be warmly welcomes. Why go to your home unexpectedly or on a forced basis only to have you set up an embarrassing demonstration? It’s all political theater on their parts because it has to be in the modern world.
I think you contra-answered your own question. I could see a President going somewhere essentially hostile and contrary to ‘good will’ if it made a particular statement. It would be strong political theater.
FWIW, I was thinking of the visits the President does after a disaster, or a staged impromptu stop while touring an area. Something very short-fused between preparatory sweep and actual visit.
Well the POTUS is also the Commander in Chief of the military so you could cite the Third Amendment to the United States Constitution to keep him or her out. It would be quite a stretch, but then so are some of the First Amendment arguments about freedom of speech.
How does any of that involve him coming into your home? You just simply say “No”, there’s nothing he could or would do.
The POTUS’ role as C-in-C does not make him a member of the military. Civilian control of the armed forces is one of the hallmarks of our democracy (and almost every liberal democracy, for that matter.) So it’s more than just a stretch.
Even just having the president in your region can be disruptive. The last time Obama came to Detroit, they closed a major freeway to the public while he was travelling on it, basically creating a rolling demilitarized zone around the presidential limo. And when he was finished with whatever political gladhanding brought him here, they did it again so he could go back to the airport.
Well, if it’s a visit during a campaign, I’m pretty sure if you had a poster prominently displayed or a campaign button on your lapel for the other party’s candidate, the advance man would tell the SS, “never mind, we’ll try somewhere else.”
The President could go an unfriendly area, or as VunderBob later remarked, might go to a disaster zone. But the CinC is not going into your hostile home for any reason. The Secret Service wouldn’t allow it even if a nutso President liked the theater.
I’m sure he listens carefully to their advice, but I’m skeptical that the President needs the permission of the Secret Service.
Closing a private business for a day? How does that work?
Public spaces can be closed off, (like the obvious example of closing the highway while the presidential limousine drives there).
But can the President (well, Secert Service) order a private factory to stop production for a day?
Can you sue the Secret Service for financial damages?
The plant agrees to do so because it’s cool to have the POTUS visit.