In the case of Zurcher v. Stanford Daily, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1977 that a search warrant could be applied to a newspaper without it necessarily violating the First Amendment rights to freedom of press or Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable searches and seizures. The case arose when police officers in Palo Alto obtained a search warrant for the offices of Stanford University's student newspaper, looking for photographs taken during a violent demonstration at a hospital which they believed would help identify participants involved in assaulting police officers there. The paper had not been implicated in any illegal activities but was merely thought to have evidence relevant to an investigation. In its decision, the court held that third parties like newspapers can be searched if it is likely they possess evidence related to criminal activity.

In the dissenting opinion for Zurcher v. Stanford Daily, Justice Stewart argued that the Fourth Amendment was designed to protect individuals from unreasonable searches and seizures by requiring authorities to obtain a warrant before conducting such activities. He believed that this protection should extend not just to criminal suspects but also third parties who may have evidence of a crime but are not suspected of any wrongdoing themselves, like in this case where Stanford Daily's offices were searched because they had photographs which could help identify protestors involved in violent clashes with police at a hospital. The majority ruling allowed these kinds of searches without considering whether there were alternative ways for law enforcement to get the information they needed or assessing how disruptive or damaging the search might be on innocent third parties' operations. This interpretation, according to Justice Stewart, undermined Fourth Amendment protections and threatened privacy rights.