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Fourth Circuit Rules That Suspicionless Border Searches of Electronic Devices Are Unconstitutional

posted by Fnord666 on Monday May 14 2018, @10:09AM   Printer-friendly
from the sudden-outbreak-of-common-sense dept.

MrPlow writes:

Submitted via IRC for Runaway1956

In a victory for privacy rights at the border, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit today ruled that forensic searches of electronic devices carried out by border agents without any suspicion that the traveler has committed a crime violate the U.S. Constitution.

The ruling in U.S. v. Kolsuz is the first federal appellate case after the Supreme Court's seminal decision in Riley v. California (2014) to hold that certain border device searches require individualized suspicion that the traveler is involved in criminal wrongdoing. Two other federal appellate opinions this year—from the Fifth Circuit and Eleventh Circuit—included strong analyses by judges who similarly questioned suspicionless border device searches.

Source: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2018/05/fourth-circuit-rules-suspicionless-forensic-searches-electronic-devices-border-are

Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 14 2018, @03:59PM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 14 2018, @03:59PM (#679608)

    Still missing a step

    Suspicion => Warrant =0> Search

    Since the searches are/should be unconstitutional without a warrant and a warrant shouldn't be granted without suspicion, this is true, but the real ruling should have addressed the root cause. We should be secure in our papers and effects at borders, within 100 mi of borders and everywhere else under US jurisdiction.

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  • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Monday May 14 2018, @05:20PM (1 child)

    by bob_super (1357) on Monday May 14 2018, @05:20PM (#679648)

    That pushes us to the next problem: warrants are way too easy to get, because there are no consequences for carefully-worded abuses.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 15 2018, @05:26PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday May 15 2018, @05:26PM (#680099)

      Yes every system can be abused, but I'll gladly take the warrant route over nothing. As long as they require a judge to be inconvenienced that is, if they automate warrants where officers can just check the boxes and get authorization then fuck that.

  • (Score: 2) by crafoo on Monday May 14 2018, @10:48PM

    by crafoo (6639) on Monday May 14 2018, @10:48PM (#679806)

    I agree with your root cause in principle.

    I think, practically speaking, the root cause is incentives. There is no incentive to treat people as innocent until proven guilty. There is no incentive to act courteous and decent to citizens. Their is no incentive to not fully prosecute and imprison innocent people (even if you know they are innocent!)