Seems to me that:
df1 = df[df['col1']==some_value] WILL NOT create a new DataFrame, basically, changes in df1 will be reflected in the parent df. This leads to the warning. Whereas, df1 = df[df['col1]]==some_value].copy() WILL create a new DataFrame, and changes in df1 will not be reflected in df. the copy() method is recommended if you don't want to make changes to your original df.