A federal district court in New York has ruled that US border officials must obtain a court order before searching cellphones or other electronic devices of Americans and international travelers crossing the US border. The decision is due on July 24. Tech portal TechCrunch reportschallenges the US government’s long-standing legal position that allows US border officials to access travelers’ devices without judicial authorization. The district court’s decision applies to the entire Eastern District of New York, which includes John F. Kennedy (JFK) International Airport, one of the most important airports in the United States.
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The court’s decision relates to a criminal case involving US citizen Kurbonali Sultanov. In 2022, border officers at JFK Airport confiscated his cell phone and asked him to enter his password. When officers told him he had no choice, Sultanov obeyed. He later filed a request to suppress the material recovered from a search of the phone, which was allegedly child sexual abuse material, as TechCrunch writes. Sultanov argued that the search violated his Fourth Amendment rights. It prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures and sets requirements for issuing a search warrant.
Typically, law enforcement must convince a judge of sufficient suspicion to justify a search of a mobile device. However, at the border, the US government asserts unique powers and authority, such as searching devices without such a warrant. TechCrunch writes, “The US border is a legally ambiguous place where international travelers have almost no right to privacy and where Americans can also face intrusive searches.” Critics have deemed the practice unconstitutional for years ), the agency responsible for border security said it searched more than 41,700 devices belonging to international travelers in 2023.
Suspicious searches endanger press freedom
In the ruling now issued, the judge partly follows the defendants’ argument that border searches also violate the First Amendment. It protects, among other things, freedom of speech and freedom of the press. The searches therefore posed an “unreasonably high” risk of deterrence to press activities and a deterrent effect on journalists crossing the border. The court “shares the groups’ concerns about the impact of searches of electronic devices without a search warrant at the border on other protected First Amendment freedoms – freedom of speech, religion, and association,” the judge said.
Targets of political opposition (or their allies, friends or families) would only have to travel through an international airport once to give the government unfettered access to the ‘most intimate window into a person’s life,'” the judge said in an earlier ruling, citing a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on cell phone privacy. Civil rights groups applauded the ruling.
In Sultanov’s case, the Court ruled that the search of his cell phone without a search warrant was unconstitutional. However, it concluded that the government had acted in good faith at the time of the search and denied Sultanov’s request to suppress the evidence on his phone.
(AKN)
