And is not part of the problem here trying to determine the "cyber equivalent" of such things as plain sight and hot pursuit? A lot of what goes on online is the equivalent of high noon in the public square, even if people don't quite understand that.
No. The judge signature is basically the other part of the 4th amendment, about warrants. That is what makes an otherwise unreasonable search, reasonable: it was reviewed by a neutral magistrate, and the neutral magistrate determined they had probable cause.
If the search is reasonable, you don't need anything from a judge.
This doesn't mean you can go busting into places, but ...
What? No, no, no, NO. That is completely wrong. There are cases where a warrant is not necessary, such as immediate danger to an officer. However, a warrant is issued only upon probable cause. This still needs to be reasonable, and the judge is the one who decides if the search is reasonable.
What?
You are confusing the warrant requirement, which is completely separate from the reasonableness of a search.
I'm not sure how you are coming up with what you think is th analysis, but every law school textbook, supreme court opinion, etc, will tell you that you start with whether the search was reasonable.
If the search was reasonable by law , there is no 4th amendment violation. Period.
Maybe you are confused because they often say these are not searches? For example, you will read that doing helicopter flyovers, even when looking in people's fields, is reasonable (which at the time, meant it wasn't a violation of the subject's reasonable expectation of privacy), and thus, not considered a search that is subject to the rest of the 4th amendment. This isn't because it's "not a search" in reality, it's because the 4th only protects against unreasonable searches and seizures, not all searches and seizures, and thus, for the rest of 4th amendment purposes, it's not a search.
If the search was not reasonable, it either has to fall into an exception, or requires a warrant.
Now, current jurisprudence considers most searches without a warrant unreasonable (subject to plain sight, automobile exceptions, etc), but that is irrelevant to the steps in the analysis.
You seem to be mixing a lot of the analysis and requirements around.
