St. Paul police sought two months of records

Although the police search warrant application for a reporter’s cell phone records remains under seal, the St. Paul Pioneer Press reports that the newly disclosed warrant application for a sheriff’s deputy’s records in the same incident sought records for a two-month period. Rather than simply looking for a connection in the release of one police report, police said the records would establish whether there was a "pattern of communication, which may be continuing between these two individuals," according to the newspaper.

It should go without saying that such a relationship is none of their business, and cannot justify the seizure of two months worth of a reporter’s phone call records — and not just when, as here, what was released was clearly a public record.