I’m just curious, I see a few of my friends on Facebook like pages for a few… not strictly legal things (okay, specifically Marijuana). Regardless of ethics, morals, likelihood, or wisdom of actually doing it (i.e. strictly legally), could the police use being a fan of a Marijuana page as “reasonable suspicion” or “probable cause” (I think whichever is required depends on local law) for an investigation? I know with legal questions there usually has to be some sort of legal test, has this ever been tested? Has a cop ever tried investigated a friend of a friend who “liked” a similar type of page or something? Did it hold? And, as always, I’m principality agnostic on the question, use whatever local laws and court decisions you like when answering the question. Again, I’m just curious, it’s not a pressing issue so I don’t need to know what my specific laws say.
I don’t do Marijuana, I have nothing against its legalization, and even if I did do it, I’m not ballsy enough to actually like a Facebook page for it, nor am I going to go around screaming at all my friends to unlike the page immediately, I’m just asking out of intellectual curiosity.
Finally, if it doesn’t constitute grounds for off-the-wall unwarrented search, could it potentially by itself (meaning with no corroborating factors) be enough reason to get a search warrant from a judge? (And by “a judge” I don’t mean any judge, I mean a reasonable, average, clear thinking judge).
As far as I know, the police do not need any articulable reason to conduct an investigation to the limits of your rights (department policy notwithstanding). They can pull whatever records they have general access to, follow you around, talk to your neighbours, poke through your garbage, etc. No matter what grounds they had for starting it (save some narrow exceptions), any evidence they find can be used to obtain a search or arrest warrant.
…assuming they find additional evidence. Your question pretty much focused on the ‘like’ being the only evidence. In that case, I’d say no reasonable judge is going to issue a search warrant for liking a page, or even a constellation of similar things–subscribing to High Times, wearing a pot-leaf t-shirt, having a collection of Grateful Dead stickers on your VW bus, and so on. These all suggest liking pot, but not an admission or actual evidence of having pot.
I can’t find it with Google, but I know I read about a traffic stop in which the Officer searched the vehicle and driver without a warrant based solely on a copy of High Times being visible on the back seat.
Seems it was a civil rights case in that the Officer found nothing, but the driver contacted a lawyer and sued the city or somesuch, leading to a ruling that a copy of the High Times was not reasonable suspicion.
Well, I know that in the several years I have lobbied pro legalization/decriminalization in CT using my real name we never got the house or myself/car searched. I have also been very careful to not look like a head/hippie nor act like a stoner. Of course for all of the time in the past 30 years I could pass a whizz quiz with impunity. [Just because someone is pro weed does not mean that they use, it simply means that they think the laws surrounding it are stupid.]
I have seen some cases where rather dubious “evidence” was at least part of the probable cause(books about drugs etc) but none of these were possession cases all conspiracy to manufacture etc.