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IANAL but I think a subpoena is different from a warrant.
by jakelazaroff 4y ago
IANAL but I think a subpoena is different from a warrant.
- alistairSH 4y agoThey are. Roughly, a warrant is issued to a law enforcement agent and grants them powers not normally granted (arrest, search, etc). A subpoena is issued to a 3rd party to produce evidence or appear in court. In this case, the warrant appears to have been issued to an officer in the Norfolk PD, who then asked FB for any messages between the two suspects. What's not clear to me (IANAL) is what power FB had to refuse to comply with the warrant. If they refused to comply, would the police start seizing servers? Or, would FB be held in contempt (usually applies to subpoenas, not sure if that would apply with a warrant). All that said, the "easy" answer for FB (Apple, Google, etc) is E2E encryption of messages. Then all they can do it produce the encrypted "gibberish" and the PD has to hack it or move on.