Robert Weisberg, the co-director of the Stanford Criminal Justice Center, called the affidavit “thin,” overall, and said police should have investigated the letter further before seeking a search warrant for over a year’s worth of electronic data from Alvarez’s phone.

“It’s a very generous finding of probable cause by a judge,” Weisberg said.

All three scholars agreed that Alvarez’s elected status likely did not influence the judges who signed the warrant.

Weisberg and Colgan said a judge could have applied extra scrutiny if the warrant were being served on a possible political foe for police.