Judge rules reasonable cause and warrant required for cell phone searches at the U.S. border!

[thewayne]

Finally! On Wednesday, "Judge Nina Morrison in the Eastern District of New York ruled that cellphone searches are a "nonroutine" search, more akin to a strip search than scanning a suitcase or passing a traveler through a metal detector."

Ultimately, of course, it'll still have to be locked down either through Congressional action, which will result in more challenges and CBP ignoring it, up through the Supreme Court. But for now, if you fly in to JFK, you're probably safe from search. A CBP agent admitted in court that most of the searches were fishing expeditions and most people were quite compliant.

I will still be inclined to power off my phone while passing through the ridiculous hell of customs and immigration while coming back into the country, but this is a great improvement, especially for journalists who work on potentially dangerous stories!

Meanwhile, since Biden is a lame duck, he's said to be working on a set of SCOTUS reforms that includes adding more justices to cover the additional circuit courts that have been added to the country.

https://reason.com/2024/07/26/courts-close-the-loophole-letting-the-feds-search-your-phone-at-the-border/

Comments

[motodraconis]

I think this says it only applies to US citizens, so the rest of us can continue to be treated like dirt. I've only been to the US a couple of times but the border control was so insulting. We all had to wait hours in line due to them grilling every person. I had to detail my reason for coming to the US as a British citizen coming from the UK (presenting at an academic conference) and OF COURSE my only reason for entering was to abscond from my life in the UK as an associate professor and become an illegal immigrant, hoping for a better life as a homeless person scraping by cleaning toilets on the black market or some such. For. Fucks. Sake.

Can't return to the US now anyway. I am banned because I visited Iran 10 years ago as a tourist.

[thewayne]

That is a distinct possibility that it only applies to American citizens.  Which sucks.  We've been a country of double-standards for far too long.  I don't know why our customs/passport control is so utterly fucked when we enter the country, it was so easy for my wife and I to enter Europe in Frankfurt, and then such a pain coming back into the USA.  Absolutely shambolic and ridiculous.

[ndrosen]

I’m glad to hear this (U.S. citizen here). I understand that Customs agents would have the authority to paw through my suitcase and backpack for heroin or other contraband even without any particular reason to think that I’m a smuggler. However, conducting a fishing expedition through all the data on my cellphone or tablet is a different issue; there’s no need to do this in order to detect the smuggling of physical products and materials.

[thewayne]

I always power off my devices and disable biometric logins.  There's squishy legal basis on using biometrics to unlock devices, but if you know the password, they have to go to truly extraordinary lengths to compel you to produce it.

[silveradept]

It's good that the courts are deciding that things that are enumerated in the Constitution are not somehow limited because border cops have decided they don't actually apply. It still doesn't mean that we should treat CBP as anything other than a hostile force looking for excuses.

And I would certainly appreciate some judicial reforms so as to not let people who have taken bribes in everything but name dictate policy through their seat on the Supreme Court.

[disneydream06]

Great news until somebody takes it to Orange's supreme court. UGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hugs, Jon