But a subpoena is a not a thing cops do. They do not issue or execute subpoenas.
Eh, sort of. In an investigation, the cops (usually a detective/investigator since this doesn’t involve street-level stuff) are using something called a grand jury subpoena. It’s not the same thing as a subpoena issued by a court (which, by the way, are often executed by cops… usually something like a constable or marshal’s office that works directly with the court). The cop types up the subpoena, which is usually incredibly basic and just says who the subpoena is for, what they want, and what the charge is or may be, and then brings it to the district attorney. The district attorney signs off on it, and afterwards the cop sends it off to the company (and it’s 99.999% of the time a company, because the legalities about your dealings with a business make it much easier to obtain the information than other things in your life, meaning it ‘bypasses’ the legal rulings about searches). No judge involvement is necessary for these types of subpoenas.
Working from my memory, I can also sort of recall that the ‘date’ listed on those subpoenas isn’t really tied to a specific court date either. The stock forms I remember the cops using just said that they gave the company a time limit of ‘X.’ I’d have to see the specific paperwork that was filed in order to say whether the prosecution truly overstepped themselves into illegal/unethical behavior.
A constitutional requirement for what? Answer that and you’ll understand why it doesn’t matter if they’re in “clear violation.”