re: #175 Unshaken Defiance

The following happened (obviously, but importantly) well before Trump takes office. This happened on Obamas watch. Can’t imagine what it will get like under the new ad… admin… administration. Gah hard to actually type that out I dislike him so much. Any way look out for more of this sort of thing. Our rights are so diminished near the border.

bbc.com

This searching of electronic devices has been going on for a long time. The border search exception to the Fourth Amendment pretty much negates the requirement for probable cause allows the searches. I remember reading about it a good while back.

It naturally got a lot more focus after 9/11, but AFAIK the exception had always existed. It’s certainly unsettling that someone like the Orange Vulgarian could really use that in bad, bad ways.

The DOJ published this United States Attorneys’ Bulletin (PDF) on “Border Issues” in November 2014. I only read the first couple of pages, but it looks kinda interesting (assuming it doesn’t get into too much lawyer-speak).

From Wired in 2008.
Border Laptop Searches? No Reason Needed
New Border Search Policy Far Broader, New Documents Reveal
Border Agents Can Search Laptops Without Cause, Appeals Court Rules
ACLU Assails 100-Mile Border Zone as ‘Constitution-Free’

DHS 2009
New Directives on Border Searches of Electronic Media

Computerworld 2010
Federal court upholds border search of laptop in Texas | Computerworld

The New York Times 2013/14 (New Year’s Eve)
District Judge Upholds Government’s Right to Search Electronics at Border

AP via Yahoo, 2015
Court: Border search of businessman’s laptop ‘unreasonable’