The hearing to quash a search warrant into two pro-Palestinian student Instagram accounts on Friday morning was quick.
Santa Barbara County Judge Pauline Maxwell seemed to have already made up her mind to reject the search warrant into the UC Santa Barbara–affiliated accounts — @saygenocideucsb and @ucsbliberatedzone — on the grounds that it was too broad and did not establish sufficient probable cause.
The warrant was filed by the UC Police Department based on their suspicions that the account holders were responsible for the June occupation and vandalism of UCSB’s Girvetz Hall as part of a political protest, which resulted in $40,000 in damages, according to court records.
UCPD issued the warrant on September 11 as part of its investigation into alleged kidnapping, vandalism, burglary, and conspiracy by occupiers.
The police wanted to identify the account holders. However, the warrant would have also revealed other information, such as the IP addresses of those who simply liked, commented, or interacted with the pages.
A motion to block the warrant was filed on September 25. Last month, both sides presented their arguments before a courtroom packed with protesters.
The UC and its governing board, represented by attorneys Jonathan Miller and Anthony Davis, argued that posts on @saygenocideucsb took responsibility for the occupation, referring to a letter that says they “have taken Girvetz Hall,” and that it constituted probable cause for the warrant.
However, attorney Addison Steele, representing a person who may have interacted with one or both of the Instagram pages, was not convinced.
“There’s no evidence of a connection between who posted it and who wrote it, and there’s not even really a connection between who wrote it and who occupied Girvetz,” Steele said on Friday. “That’s two or three levels of speculation, which I don’t think indicates probable cause.”
Judge Maxwell ultimately ruled on Friday that the warrant was overly broad — implicating possible violations of freedom of speech and political speech, particularly concerning those who simply interacted with the posts. Police are too often given leeway on such warrants, she noted.
However, she said that she does believe the warrant can be rewritten to articulate probable cause with a narrowed focus, giving UCPD the opportunity to write a cleaner warrant that may pass.
“The Constitution enjoyed a victory today,” Steele said. “The police do not get access to everyone practicing political speech to find some trespassers.”
