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I see no reason that the government can't get a warrant when it needs information. It's right there in the fourth Amendment. Change the Amendment if you feel warrants are no longer necessary.

We're at war, if you hadn't noticed.

Public library and the folks wanting access to the computers were citizens. Anyone sitting at one of the computers would have had the same basic access to anything that they would have...

Have you actually read the 4th Amendment? It's not apparent to anyone except an ACLU lawyer that it would apply to this sort of case (which certainly is far from anything the founders could have discussed in 1789).... a case of immediate terrorist threat issued from PUBLIC property utilizing PUBLICLY owned equipment. The 4th Amendment refers to "unreasonable" searches, and how could anyone except a terrorist or sympathizer think it's "unreasonable" for officials to rush to examine a PUBLICLY owned computer, accessible to all, from which the threat had been issued.... the first clause of the 4th Amendment refers to being "secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects"..... we are talking about a publicly owned computer in a public space, not anyone's private person-house-papers-effects.... unless the founders are somehow supposed to have imagined sending emails from public PCs more than 200 years ago.... this was in no way a case of searching anyone's home, personal property, car, etc. The 2nd clause of the 4th Amendment, describing conditions for warrants being issued, should not apply to PUBLIC property open to use by all (though given the lunacy of so much constitutional jurisprudence in recent decades, I'm not at all surprised that they had to wait 12 hours to be allowed to examine evidence of a possible imminent terrorist attack). fwiw, I use computers in several public libraries all the time, and it never would have occurred to me to expect or demand some absolute right of privacy there, on public property, if a terrorist threat were issued from one of those PCs..... I'd expect it would be quite "reasonable" for the FBI, etc. to be able to act immediately to access them under emergency conditions.

4th AMENDMENT: "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."

I would think that they were trying to get the info/perp as fast as possible - like in an emergency?

What if the threat was real and someone died? Would the librarian be arrested?