[Infowarrior] - Court Rules No Suspicion Needed for Laptop Searches at Border

[Richard Forno]

Court Rules No Suspicion Needed for Laptop Searches at Border
https://www.aclu.org/national-security-technology-and-liberty/court-rules-no-suspicion-needed-laptop-searches-border

Decision Dismisses ACLU Lawsuit Challenging DHS Search Policy as 
Unconstitutional

December 31, 2013

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: 212-549-2666, media at aclu.org

BROOKLYN – A federal court today dismissed a lawsuit arguing that the 
government should not be able to search and copy people’s laptops, cell 
phones, and other devices at border checkpoints without reasonable 
suspicion. An appeal is being considered. Government documents show that 
thousands of innocent American citizens are searched when they return 
from trips abroad.

"We're disappointed in today's decision, which allows the government to 
conduct intrusive searches of Americans' laptops and other electronics 
at the border without any suspicion that those devices contain evidence 
of wrongdoing," said Catherine Crump, the American Civil Liberties Union 
attorney who argued the case in July 2011. "Suspicionless searches of 
devices containing vast amounts of personal information cannot meet the 
standard set by the Fourth Amendment, which prohibits unreasonable 
searches and seizures. Unfortunately, these searches are part of a 
broader pattern of aggressive government surveillance that collects 
information on too many innocent people, under lax standards, and 
without adequate oversight."

The ACLU, the New York Civil Liberties Union, and the National 
Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers filed the lawsuit in September 
2010 against the Department of Homeland Security. DHS asserts the right 
to look though the contents of a traveler's electronic devices, and to 
keep the devices or copy the contents in order to continue searching 
them once the traveler has been allowed to enter the U.S., regardless of 
whether the traveler is suspected of any wrongdoing.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Pascal Abidor, a dual French-American 
citizen who had his laptop searched and confiscated at the Canadian 
border; the National Press Photographers Association, whose members 
include television and still photographers, editors, students and 
representatives of the photojournalism industry; and the NACDL, which 
has attorney members in 25 countries.

Abidor was travelling from Montreal to New York on an Amtrak train in 
May 2010 when he had his laptop searched and confiscated by customs 
officers. Abidor, an Islamic Studies Ph.D. student at McGill University, 
was questioned, taken off the train in handcuffs, and held in a cell for 
several hours before being released without charge. When his laptop was 
returned 11 days later, there was evidence that many of his personal 
files had been searched, including photos and chats with his girlfriend.

In June, in response to an ACLU Freedom of Information Act request, DHS 
released its December 2011 Civil Rights/Civil Liberties Impact 
Assessment of its electronics search policy, concluding that 
suspicionless searches do not violate the First or Fourth Amendments. 
The report said that a reasonable suspicion standard is inadvisable 
because it could lead to litigation and the forced divulgence of 
national security information, and would prevent border officers from 
acting on inchoate "hunches," a method that it says has sometimes proved 
fruitful.

Today’s ruling is available at:
aclu.org/sites/default/files/assets/abidor_decision.pdf


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