Legal experts were shocked at the government’s request. “They want the ability to get a warrant on the assumption that they will learn more after they have a warrant,” said Marina Medvin of Medvin Law. “Essentially, they are seeking to have the ability to convince people to comply by providing their fingerprints to law enforcement under the color of law – because of the fact that they already have a warrant. They want to leverage this warrant to induce compliance by people they decide are suspects later on. This would be an unbelievably audacious abuse of power if it were permitted.”
The justifications didn’t wash with Medvin or Lynch. Of the Fourth Amendment argument, Medvin said the police don’t have the right to search a person or a place in hopes of justifying the search later as reasonable. “That’s not how the 4th Amendment works,” Medvin added. “You need to have a reasonable basis before you begin the search – that reasonable basis is what allows you to search in the first place.”
Source: Feds Walk Into A Building. Demand Everyone’s Fingerprints To Open Phones – Forbes