zlacker

>>_delir+(OP)
> The search warrant, signed by Marion County District Court Magistrate Judge Laura Viar, appears to violate federal law that provides protections against searching and seizing materials from journalists.

Wow, unreal that she could approve such a warrant. Even in the absence of a federal statute it seems like a crazy step to take.

>>wyldfi+X3
I’d love to see stats on what % of search warrants are NOT signed off by a judge (I’d bet hardly any), and how many search warrants later found to be inaccurate, end up with disciplinary action towards the police (I’d bet almost none).

The 4th amendment isn’t worth anything if judges will sign off on everything that crosses their desk.

>>efitz+7I1
I've tried looking into this in Chicago. Fax records that would show how often a fax is made to the specific fax number aren't accessible because Chicago PD uses a third party service to send faxes, and they don't keep logs. They do it by having the third party company host a physical host at CPD's office, which the agency says they don't have access to.

When I tried to get records showing how often search warrants happen and what their details are, they give inconsistent amounts of records for identical time windows. First FOIA request gave 9k records, second was 11k, third was 18k. And colleagues were able to find more with requests for emails.

When I appealed to the IL AG office, they sided with CPD saying that a sufficient search was done, despite our proof showing that a marginally expanded search resulted in more records.

All made worse by the Judicial branch being un-FOIAable.

It's all pretty fucked.