The government is not entitled to rummage through the political opinions, associations, criticisms and angry rhetoric of anyone merely because a government official finds those opinions offensive, threatening to an agency's reputation or inconvenient to its mission.

Recently, Immigration and Customs Enforcement has dramatically expanded its monitoring of social media platforms and has issued administrative subpoenas seeking information identifying users whose posts have criticized ICE. The reported investigations have included Americans and aliens who have not been charged with crimes.

An administrative subpoena is not a judicial search warrant or a grand jury subpoena. It can be issued by one government official to another for investigative authorization; or to an entity legally subject to the issuing agency such as from bank regulators to a banking institution.