united-states search-and-seizure fourth-amendment
What rights do foreigners have when the CBP wants to search their laptop?
<p>Since <a href="https://www.aclu.org/government-data-about-searches-international-travelers-laptops-and-personal-electronic-devices">laptop and other electronic device seizures at US borders</a> became legal without a warrant (including making copies of data), <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Security_theater#Economic_costs">7% of ACTE's business travelers reported being subject to a seizure as far back as February 2008</a>.</p>

<p>Recently <a href="http://pdfserver.amlaw.com/nlj/Opinion%20on%20Kim%20motion%20to%20suppress%20NLJ.pdf">U.S. District Judge Amy B. Jackson has issued the government a long overdue smack-down in this regard</a>. While her ruling is based on the particularly egregious circumstances of this case (waiting for someone to leave in order to get around a warrant, seizing the laptop without searching it and transporting it to be imaged and forensically analyzed, the flimsy tip, and the lack of any allegation of a current crime), she resoundingly rejects CBP’s assertion that it needs no suspicion to do whatever it wants at the border regarding digital devices.  </p>

<p>Americans can plead the Fourth Amendment, but what can foreigners do? </p>

<p>Foreign citizens are just as entitled to Fourth Amendment protections against search and seizure as American citizens are. The case you cited was, in fact, a South Korean citizen who successfully had evidence suppressed from an unjustified border search.</p>
