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from the When's-the-last-time-you-crossed-the-border-with-a-half-dozen-filing-cabinets? dept.
It reverses a landmark victory for privacy advocates.
Border Agents Can Search Phones Freely Under New Circuit Court Ruling - The Verge:
A US appeals court has ruled that Customs and Border Protection agents can conduct in-depth searches of phones and laptops, overturning an earlier legal victory for civil liberties groups. First Circuit Judge Sandra Lynch declared that both basic and "advanced" searches, which include reviewing and copying data without a warrant, fall within "permissible constitutional grounds" at the American border.
Lynch ruled against a group of US citizens and residents objecting to invasive searches of their electronic devices.
[...] A district court declared that CBP searches violated the Fourth Amendment by not requiring "reasonable suspicion" that the devices contained contraband. Lynch disagreed. "Electronic device searches do not fit neatly into other categories of property searches, but the bottom line is that basic border searches of electronic devices do not involve an intrusive search of a person," she wrote. That lowers the bar for conducting them at the border, where the government's interest in security is "at its zenith."
Appeals courts have issued conflicting opinions on how electronic devices fall under the "border search exception," a rule allowing warrantless searches that might otherwise be unconstitutional. [...] The exception is primarily intended for finding contraband or unauthorized entrants, but it applies to federal agents working within 100 miles of the US border — an area that covers most metropolitan areas.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by DeathMonkey on Friday February 12 2021, @07:11PM (4 children)
I think the unfortunate reality is that most voters don't care about this, or at a minimum have it very low priority, and both major parties do reflect that attitude.
(Although one party is a lot more concerned about border security than another.)
It's really only the weirdos like us that care about it.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 12 2021, @07:45PM (3 children)
This is complete, absolute, and utter bullshit. This is an issue that the vast majority of Americans do have an opinion, and strong one, on. The problem is that the opinion of the Americans on this one is the exact opposite of the political establishment. And as corporate media has become little more than a branch of our political establishment, issues like this receive next to no coverage. But there will be plenty of coverage on mostly irrelevant topics that make us all hate each other, instead of actually looking at the people responsible for these problems.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 12 2021, @08:00PM (2 children)
Your opinion might be more elevated than you think. We just had 70 million people vote for a person and party who back strong arm positions and "law and order", meaning "you don't have anything to worry about if you don't have anything to hide." I don't think all 70 million strongly support that position, but they are ok voting for a dictatorial system if they perceive they are on the "right" side of the strong man.
(Score: 3, Touché) by DeathMonkey on Friday February 12 2021, @09:01PM (1 child)
I'm sure the 'build the wall' people are totally opposed to searching brown people at the border...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 13 2021, @08:44PM
Brown people aren't supposed to be here. Too bad most whites are too brainwashed to admit it to themselves, much less do something about it.