WaPo: Volokh notes the recent D.D.C. decisions on electronic searches in the last two weeks

WaPo: Volokh: Judge denies warrant application because he thinks the government doesn’t need a warrant by Orin Kerr:

In the last two weeks, Magistrate Judge John Facciola of the District of Columbia has issued five remarkable decisions involving computer search and seizure law. In each case, Magistrate Judge Facciola denied applications for search warrants on Fourth Amendment grounds and issued published opinions explaining his denial. An appeal of at least some of Facciola’s decisions seems likely, so I thought I would blog on the various decisions and explain why I find them unpersuasive. I’ll start with the simplest of the decisions: In Matter of United States of America for a Search Warrant for a Black Kyocera Corp Model C5170 Cellular Telephone with FCC ID: V65V5170, dated March 7th. In the decision, Judge Facciola does something I have never seen before: He denies a warrant application with prejudice on the ground that he thinks the government could execute the search without a warrant. Does he have the power to do that? Let’s take a look.