Searching Laptops at the Border
Friday, August 1st, 2008 by Harry LewisThe Department of Homeland Security may take your laptop at the U.S. border and remove it to an off-site location for as long as it wants. Doesn’t matter if you are a U.S. citizen. There it may examine its contents and have any text it contains translated.
WITHOUT HAVING ANY REASON TO THINK YOU HAVE DONE ANYTHING WRONG.
I love Michael Chertoff’s explanation of why border guards won’t bother with the niceties of probable cause provided for in the Fourth Amendment: “As a practical matter, travelers only go to secondary [for a more thorough examination] when there is some level of suspicion. Yet legislation locking in a particular standard for searches would have a dangerous, chilling effect as officers’ often split-second assessments are second-guessed.”
He’s right, of course. The Bill of Rights has a chilling effect on the government. That’s what it’s there for!
August 2nd, 2008 at 2:33 pm
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