Government searches of international travelers’ electronic devices at airports and other U.S. ports of entry without reasonable suspicion violate the Fourth Amendment, a federal court in Boston ruled Tuesday, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.
The ruling came in a lawsuit filed by the ACLU on behalf of 11 travelers whose smartphones and laptops were searched recently without suspicion at U.S. ports of entry.
The number of electronic device searches at U.S. ports of entry has increased significantly. Last year, CBP conducted more than 33,000 searches, almost four times the number from just three years prior.
"This is a great day for travelers who now can cross the international border without fear that the government will, in the absence of any suspicion, ransack the extraordinarily sensitive information we all carry in our electronic devices." — Sophia Cope, a senior staff attorney with Electronic Frontier Foundation
The ACLU hailed the ruling as a major victory for privacy rights.
“This is a great day for travelers who now can cross the international border without fear that the government will, in the absence of any suspicion, ransack the extraordinarily sensitive information we all carry in our electronic devices," said Sophia Cope, a senior staff attorney with Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit digital rights group that joined in the case with the ACLU.
A 2018 watchdog report found U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers often searched the electronic devices of travelers without following proper protocol.
Officers are allowed under law to look through devices of travelers who are referred for a secondary inspection. During the primary inspection, travel documents and passports are reviewed. If a secondary inspection is needed, officers may search devices includig phones, thumb drives and computers to determine admissibility into the country, and also to identify potential law violations.
The lawsuit was Alasaad v. McAleenan, filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, Electronic Frontier Foundation and ACLU of Massachusetts.
— Information from The Associated Press was used to supplement this report.
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