>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. The law requires law enforcement to subpoena materials instead.
This isn't true. It is legal to search and seize journalists, if the journalist are suspected of committing a crime.
Either the author doesn't know the law, or is being misleading, because the same article also says the local and state cops are investigating the local journalist.
The statement from the state police is a lot more vague than that:
> “At the request of the Marion Police Department, on Tuesday, Aug. 8, we began an investigation into allegations of criminal wrongdoing in Marion, Kansas. The investigation is ongoing”
And even the warrant only uses passive language indicating that crimes have been committed without identifying a suspect:
> Having evidence under oath before me from which I find there is probable cause to believe that an offense against the laws of the State of Kansas, including but not limited to violations of K.S.A. 21-6107 - Identity theft and K.S.A. 21-5839 - Unlawful acts concerning computers, has been committed
but the warrant does at least identify that it is believed computers at the paper were "involved in the identity theft". However, no person at the paper has yet been named as suspected of committing a crime.