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This is a guest post by Hugh Handeyside, Senior Staff Attorney, ACLU National Security Project, Nathan Freed Wessler, Staff Attorney, ACLU Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, and Esha Bhandari, Staff Attorney, ACLU Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project. It was originally posted on the ACLU Speak Freely blog.
In September 2017, we, along with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, sued the federal government for its warrantless and suspicionless searches of phones and laptops at airports and other U.S. ports of entry.
The government immediately tried to dismiss our case, arguing that the First and Fourth Amendments do not protect against such searches. But the court ruled that our clients — 10 U.S. citizens and one lawful permanent resident whose phones and laptops were searched while returning to the United States — could move forward with their claims.
Since then, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement have had to turn over documents and evidence about why and how they conduct warrantless and suspicionless searches of electronic devices at the border. And their officials have had to sit down with us to explain — under oath — their policies and practices governing such warrantless searches.
What we learned is alarming, and we're now back in court with this new evidence asking the judge to skip trial altogether and rule for our clients.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 02 2019, @05:07PM (2 children)
It wasn't just since the Baby Bush presidency that customs had rather broad authority to search travelers and their effects on entry to the US.
(Score: 2) by ilsa on Thursday May 02 2019, @08:56PM (1 child)
While that is presumably true (I'll have to take your word for it because I don't know), what HAS changed is that our electronic devices are now FAR more integrated into our personal lives than they used to be, and they are getting more so with every passing year.
It's one thing to have your car searched at the border. It's another thing entirely to have your entire personal history, including everyone you've EVER talked to, slurped up without a warrant or recourse.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 03 2019, @04:17AM
Your recourse is to not (re)import the devices into the United States. But as a citizen, they can't stop your person from entering. Unless congress makes law protecting information storage devices from search (and why would they), you'll have to take your chances with random court decisions that will be in your favor or against.