[twoquestions]

How did this travesty pass 4th Amendment muster?

"Yes Mr. Bar Owner, a few of your patrons stole a car a few weeks back. We'll need the names and addresses of all the people who visited this place for the last year please."

[tptacek]

Wait, don't the police get similar information dumps from similar fact patterns kind of routinely? I know they can't properly use dragnet searches as a starting point for an investigation, but if they have a reasonably specific criminal inquiry they're pursuing, can't they get their hands on a lot of stuff?

I'm not sure the fact pattern you're providing really illustrates the concern.

Rather, I think the concern is that the prosecutors have what appears to be a very diffuse criminal inquiry, and that the specific information they're looking for has a clear side-effect of intimidating lawful protesters. The concern is that the "investigation" is a pretense for intimidation.

You can't say that about the police investigating bar patrons for a specific car theft or whatever.

[twoquestions]

> Wait, don't the police get similar information dumps from similar fact patterns kind of routinely?

It does, and that's bad. Hopefully more people start realizing this.

> The concern is that the "investigation" is a pretense for intimidation.

Absolutely, and that's the toxic cherry on this poisoned cake.