03/02/2020 In re 381 Search Warrants Directed to Facebook, Inc. :: 2017 :: New York Court of Appeals Decisions :: New York Case Law :: New York Law :: US … from initiating a declaratory judgment action based on nothing more than the execution of a search warrant when the issue to be raised involves a pure question of law — such as a query concerning the scope and interpretation of a statute or a challenge to its constitutional validity — and the facts relevant to that issue are undisputed, as they are here. Because no criminal action had been initiated against any identified party at the time this declaratory judgment action was commenced, the decision whether the action could be entertained fell soundly within the realm of discretion possessed by the lower courts and we discern no abuse of that discretion in the denial of the motion to dismiss." (id. at 634-635) The majority finally relies on Matter of B.T. Prods. v Barr (54 AD2d 315, 319 [4th Dept 1976], affd 44 NY2d 226 [1978]). There, pursuant to a warrant, the Organized Crime Task Force seized all of B.T. Products' records for a two-year period. B.T. Products sought a writ of prohibition, contending that the Task Force lacked the authority to do so. We affirmed B.T. Products' right to proceed with its writ of prohibition, writing: "In most cases, prohibition will not be available to challenge the validity of a search warrant. For one thing, it will lie only if the challenge, as in the present case, goes to jurisdiction rather than simply to the existence of probable cause in a particular situation. Of equal significance is the fact that in the typical case there will [*21]exist an adequate alternative remedy. A search warrant is most often used to obtain evidence in the course of a criminal investigation of a particular crime, an investigation which will soon eventuate in a criminal proceeding. In such cases, the validity of the search warrant will of course be subject to challenge by means of a motion to suppress, the denial of which is appealable in the context of an appeal from the resultant conviction. Here, however, there is no prosecution, and there is no indication that there ever will be a prosecution, and thus there is no opportunity for a motion to suppress. To allow the failure to prosecute, a failure which may well be due to the absence of sufficient grounds to prosecute, to serve as a shield for the allegedly illegal seizure and retention of private property by government agents would be to make a mockery of justice. This is indeed a proper case for application of the just and ancient writ of prohibition." (id. at 233) Far from supporting the proposition that the issuance of a warrant always commences a criminal proceeding, whereas the issuance of a subpoena does not, the majority's precedents establish three propositions contrary to its holding today: (1) the issuance of a warrant does not always bar the warrant's target from commencing a collateral proceeding https://law.justia.com/cases/new-york/court-of-appeals/2017/16.html 25/44