A federal district court in New York has ruled that U.S. border agents must obtain a warrant before searching the electronic devices of Americans and international travelers crossing the U.S. border.

The ruling on July 24 is the latest court opinion to upend the U.S. government’s long-standing legal argument, which asserts that federal border agents should be allowed to access the devices of travelers at ports of entry, like airports, seaports and land borders, without a court-approved warrant.

“The ruling makes clear that border agents need a warrant before they can access what the Supreme Court has called ‘a window into a person’s life,’” Scott Wilkens, senior counsel at the Knight First Amendment Institute, one of the groups that filed in the case, said in a press release Friday.

The district court’s ruling takes effect across the U.S. Eastern District of New York, which includes New York City-area airports like John F. Kennedy International Airport, one of the largest transportation hubs in the United States.

Critics have for years argued that these searches are unconstitutional and violate the Fourth Amendment, which protects against unwarranted searches and seizures of a person’s electronic devices.

In this court ruling, the judge relied in part on an amicus brief filed on the defendant’s behalf that argued the unwarranted border searches also violate the First Amendment on grounds of presenting an “unduly high” risk of a chilling effect on press activities and journalists crossing the border.

With several federal courts ruling on border searches in recent years, the issue of their legality is likely to end up before the Supreme Court, unless lawmakers act sooner.

  • wizardbeard@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    3 months ago

    If it’s a concern for a corp, they can just ship the devices through the mail if there’s less scrutiny through the mail system (there usually is, they aren’t going to check the contents of every drive or try to crack the pin on every phone), or they just store their data in the cloud and pay for a new device for use at the destination so it never crosses the border.

    • KairuByte@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      3 months ago

      They won’t try to crack your pin at airports either, they just force you to enter it against your will, under threat of arrest.

      • aramova@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        If you’re a US citizen they’ll just seize it and send it in for forensics.

        While they can make your life miserable, and revoke any entry programs you’re a member of, they can’t prevent a citizen from crossing the border. Only the stuff you carry.

    • dogslayeggs@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      We’re talking about cell phones here, not hard drives and laptops. I’m not going to ship my cell phone every time I fly out of the country, if only because it has my plane tickets and travel information that I’ll need when I land. And emails and texts might be “stored” in the cloud, but old emails are also stored on the cell phone and can be read even with wifi/cell data turned off.