BATHROOM DOORS...ARE THEY A LOCK?

I am intrigued whenever I see in a house a bathroom door with a lock mechanism. Generally, such locks are within a door knob, as a push button or lever. However, I recall one instance where the door was secured by a hook and eyelet such as what one would expect to see on a screen door in an old farm house or within a quaint outhouse.

My question: why should there be a lock on a residential bathroom door? I understand a desire for privacy. However, if a toilet or shower is in use, the door will be closed. If the door is open, the bathroom should be unoccupied. An open door policy is not at play here.

A few years ago, my wife and I stayed at a bed and breakfast house. Our room was large and recently remodeled. A full bathroom was within the room. However, the bathroom had no door. Locks and privacy were not an issue. Body sounds were.

On the outside of a locking bathroom door it is common to find a keyhole in the knob by which the door can be unlocked. When I enter a bathroom and lock the door, I begin to shake with fear that the lock will fail to reopen, making me a captive in the bathroom. This fear is compounded by the additional fear that no one will hear my calls for help, or that the owner cannot find the key to open the lock, or that locksmiths are on holiday. Instead of locking others out, I become locked in.

Is there a societal solution? Ralph Waldo Emerson said: "Be an opener of doors." Elizabeth Taylor is quoted as saying: "I feel very adventurous. There are so many doors to be opened, and I'm not afraid to look behind them." Finally, A>J> Darkholme explained: "Every man walks his own path, and every path has its fair share of locked doors. You never know who holds the key to a door you'll need to open one day, so you best treat people as if they all are key holders."

Is there a legal solution? There are court decisions that hold that residential bathrooms are entitled to privacy. For example, the U.S. Supreme Court has referred to the "century-old principle of respect for the privacy of the home."* This principle appears to go back to William Pitt's speech to Parliament in 1766: "The poorest man may, in his cottage, bid defiance to all the forces of the crown." More specifically, there is a reasonable expectation of privacy for a person in a single toilet bathroom.** As one state court decision put it, "An occupant of a closed bathroom is entitled to an expectation of privacy far greater than those persons in the common areas of a house, such as the living room and kitchen."***

However, in one federal court case, the court held otherwise. A husband and wife had an argument. The man retreated to a bathroom and locked the door. The wife called police. Officers entered the house with her consent. They ordered the husband to come out of the bathroom. When he refused, they forced the door open. In his complaint, he alleged that the officers acted unreasonably by unlawfully entering and searching the bathroom without his consent or a search warrant. The Court concluded that there was no constitutional violation because officers had the wife's consent to enter the house to protect a resident from possible domestic violence. "It is obvious from the Complaint that the officers couldn't see the Plaintiff behind the closed bathroom door and that, for some unapparent reason, he refused to present himself. The officers' duty to determine if a crime of violence had occurred and to ascertain whether Plaintiff posed a danger to their safety justified the officers' entry into Plaintiff's bathroom to address him directly."****

So, why do residential bathroom doors have locks? As Charles Dickens once said, "A very little key will open a very heavy door."

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*Wilson v. Layne, 526 U.S. 603 (1999)

**United States v. Esparza, 162 F.3d 978
(8th Cir. Minn. 1998)

***Young v. Superior Court of Tulare County,
57 Cal. App. 3d 883 (5th Dist. 1976)

****Trull v. Smolka, U.S. Dist Ct., E.D. Va.,
3:08CV460-HEH (2008)

© 2017 Daniel J. Kucera