Decius wrote:

CBP claims broad authority to seize and perform detailed searches of travelers personal laptops, cellphones, and other electronic devices, at random, with absolutely no requirement that the circumstances reach a certain minimum standard of suspicion. CBP could seize EVERY laptop that enters the country under their interpretation of US policy and Constitutional law.

I'm interested to see how far the government thinks it can take the searches. For example, let's say they are searching my cellphone. Does that mean they can check my voicemail, which is not stored on the phone but stored on my carrier's servers? If your phone is linked to your email account, can they read your email? Does that include just the email already downloaded or does it also include the email that will automatically be downloaded when they turn it on? Can they cause new email to arrive, such as password reset notices from other services?

If I have an Evernote or Dropbox application installed on my phone or laptop, are they allowed to access the information in those accounts? Honestly, most of the law enforcement types I've met probably don't know the difference between these services an a regular "app" on the phone, so they would probably feel as though they were entitled to access it. Even if they were not, there's a lot of case law where police who discover evidence "accidentally" (such as finding drugs on you when you are being arrested for some non-drug offense). I could see the courts continuing that logic and concluding that anything they find accidentally while conducting a lawful search is admissible.

RE: The Volokh Conspiracy » Two Tourists Not Allowed in Country, Locked Up Overnight, Based on “Destroy America” Joke