In an important case from Pennsylvania, State Real Estate Commission v. Roberts, 271 A. 2d 246, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court affirmed the action of Pennsylvania Real Estate Commission in suspending a broker's license for refusing to permit an investigator for the Commission to make a routine examination of his escrow account. The Pennsylvania License Law provides that every real estate broker shall keep records of all funds deposited (in escrow accounts) and that such records and funds shall be subject to inspection by the Commission.

In his appeal, the appellant broker contended that he was a private individual conducting a private business and that there was nothing in the low that made his business or his records If public" and that the Commission had violated his constitutional rights against self-incrimination and unreasonable searches and seizures.

The Court disagreed saying that appellant's case called for invoking the "Required Record Doctrine", Shapiro v. United States, 335 U.S. 1 (1948), namely, that:

"The privilege which exists as to private papers cannot be maintained in relation to records required by law to be kept in order that there may be suitable information of transactions which are the appropriate subjects of governmental regulations and the enforcement of restrictions validly established."

The Court explained that the doctrine applies wherever an individual has voluntarily entered a field which requires licensing by the state. The mere act of entering or remaining in an activity that has become subject to a required recording or reporting of information, as here, where appellant voluntarily became a real estate broker knowing full well that he would be subject to the powers of the State Real Estate Commission to revoke or suspend his license for failure to comply with the statute governing his chosen profession, constitutes a waiver of the privilege against incrimination insofar as the license is concerned.