1st Circuit Upholds Border Searches of Phones and Laptops

In February a panel of the First Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that border agents can search and confiscate a U.S. citizen’s electronic devices such as laptops or cell phones without a reason to suspect that the owner is guilty of a crime.  This ruling supports current government policy, allowing agents to turn on and search phones and laptops without reasonable suspicion of a crime.  However, the agents cannot use the device to access the internet during these searches.  An agent would need to have reasonable suspicion of a crime before the agent could use an external device to extract data from or view deleted or encrypted files on the phone or laptop.  Border agents can hold a device for a “reasonable” period but would require a supervisor’s approval to keep a device after the owner has crossed the border and would need additional approval to keep the device for longer than 15 days. The ruling does not state whether border agents can force people to share their passwords for their devices.