Otherwise, it becomes a “general warrant” — an unconstitutional and unfettered opportunity for police to explore one’s phone — browsing history, financial information, contacts, communications with loved ones or lovers, etc.
The police would first need probable cause to search for information on Baldwin’s phone that is likely to contain evidence of criminal wrongdoing. For instance, assume a set worker (cooperating witness) told police that Baldwin, in the immediate aftermath of the shooting, was texting various people directing them to give a false narrative to the police. Assume further that this set worker’s phone an inbound text message from Baldwin corroborating the witness. The police could get a search warrant to inspect Baldwin’s texts and phone logs, limited in temporal scope relevant to the day of the shooting.