MN: No REP in text message in recipient’s device

The sender of an electronic message has no reasonable expectation of privacy in it where it ends up. State v. Bonnell, 2026 Minn. LEXIS 69 (Feb. 25, 2026):

We conclude, as a matter of first impression, that a sender of an electronic message does not retain a reasonable expectation of privacy in the digital copy of the received message that is stored in the recipient’s separate and independent account or device. We further conclude that Bonnell’s Fourth Amendment and state constitutional protections were not triggered when an officer searched his accomplices’ Facebook accounts because Bonnell claims no ownership interest in those accounts and because he did not retain a legitimate expectation of privacy in the electronic messages he sent to his accomplices after the messages were received and stored in his accomplices’ Facebook accounts. We also conclude, however, that Bonnell had a reasonable expectation of privacy in the digital copies of the sent messages that were stored in his two Facebook accounts, and therefore the searches of his two Facebook accounts triggered his federal and state constitutional protections. And Bonnell’s Fourth Amendment and state constitutional protections were violated by the officer’s searches of his two Facebook accounts because the warrant authorizing the searches of his Facebook accounts lacked any temporal or subject-matter limitations.

Nevertheless, we conclude that the district court’s failure to suppress the evidence collected exclusively from the searches of Bonnell’s two Facebook accounts and its erroneous admission of that evidence at trial were harmless beyond a reasonable doubt because the jury’s verdict was surely unattributable to the errors. …