So. the article explains, briefly. The newspaper (Marion County Recorder,) peeps got into what’s basically a pissing match with a local restaurant owner (Kari Newell) because said restaurant owner kicked the newspaper peeps out. They had “confidential” information, from a source, that they published, statign that the restaurant owner was driving illegally… she lost her license as the result of a DUI/DWI charge at somepoint and continued to be driving.

The cops were probably “looking for evidence” of the “Stolen” confidential files.

The issue here is that journalists are allowed to protect their sources and that courts/lawyers/cops are supposed to subpoena documents- a process where the journalist turns over the requested documents- as apposed to what they did: which was to get a warrant from the judge, and then conduct a search and seizure.

a large part of this is, in point of fact, that the journalists have done nothing wrong- receiving confidential information like this is not in fact illegal. it may have been illegal for whoever took it, but at this point they’d probably have an excellent justification for whistleblower status- because this entire affair strikes me as Small-Town-Corruption at it’s finest.
(and lets be honest here. I doubt very much any of that was actually confidential. court records like convictions and such like are public information. and you have no expectation of privacy driving down the road. people can just follow you.)

the other issue is that with a warrant, you can only search things specifically cited in the warrant associated in the crime. clauses like “and anything else related to the crime that we happen to find” aren’t allowed. if they genuinely seized everything… they over stepped and violated due process.