> And you'll be surprised how tricky it is to find local/state courts as someone with non-regular contact with the legal system.

Name one court that signs warrants to service providers that can't be verified by spending 5 minutes doing some basic research, or that has a LEO office serving such warrants that also can't be verified.

So you go look up warrants on a regular basis?

The topic at hand isn't whether a lawyer or a court officer can, but whether EVERYONE can in a timely manner such that if a police officer or LEO (or someone impersonating one, since we're talking zero trust) can be told to go sod themselves by a layman.

Fundamentally this is a signal/info propagation problem. Processes take time.

The people who process these requests, particularly at the large companies that possess such data, are typically dedicated to the task and possess the specialized knowledge needed to do so. They have often developed significant relationships with the law enforcement community.

Do you know them? Do you have a connection that you could entrust with giving you a positive or negative answer as to whether the armed man with no sense of humor in the cop uniform outside is the real deal?

I don't. Hell, even if I had a lawyer on hand, I doubt the lawyer would go "hold up.. checking the registries, yup it's legit"; rather they'd tell you to cooperate then maybe challenge outcomes down the road when the paperwork catches up.

For most, the answer is they take it on faith anyone usurping that authority would have such a shit ton of bricks dropped on them, no one would be stupid enough to do it. Obviously, that logic is showing it's age.

Frankly, if I were the courts/LE and found out this was going on, there'd be a new Public Enemy #1. Trust is too important.