Rattle wrote:

If the Ninth Circuit does agree with Judge Pregerson that computer searches are "non routine," there's a decent chance that this case would be the first computer search and seizure case to get to the Supreme Court.

Sweet! I find the prospect of random laptop searches at borders to be offensive to the idea of a free society on many levels. Finally, someone has argued, and a court has accepted the arguement, that this isn't Constitutional. Now, we'll get to find out if the higher courts agree. Its on!

Unfortunately this came out of the 9th Circuit, which probably has a higher overturn rate than any of them. Given the current composition of the Court, I'd be will ing to wager on at least where some of the votes will come down. Alito, and Uncle Thomas will come down on the side of routine, Ginsberg, Souter, Breyer, and Stevens will come down on the side of not routine. Roberts I would guess would come down on routine, but he doesn't really have enough under his belt to say this for sure. Kennedy is as usual, the wild card and will likely be the deciding vote, with Scalia probably writing a secondary opinion that while the searches are not routine, that does not make them unreasonable. The decision? 5-4 going whichever way Kennedy decides to go.

RE: The Volokh Conspiracy - District Court Holds That Border Searches of Computers Require Reasonable Suspicion: