Electronic Frontier Foundation — Deeplinks —

Victory! Tenth Circuit Finds Fourth Amendment Doesn’t Support Broad Search of Protesters’ Devices and Digital Data

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit reversed a district court ruling that had dismissed a civil‑rights suit over sweeping warrants targeting a protester’s devices and a nonprofit’s Facebook page. The appellate panel found the three warrants overbroad, lacking particularity in scope and duration, and ruled that the officers could not rely on qualified immunity because they violated clearly established Fourth Amendment law. The decision marks a rare appellate rebuke of law‑enforcement search practices and sends the case back for further proceedings. It underscores heightened judicial scrutiny of digital‑data searches linked to protests.