July 2006: In an environment where people are constantly streaming across borders, random intrusive searches for any evidence of any crime goes far beyond the notion of border protection for national security purposes and becomes exactly the sort of dragnet that the Constitution was intended to prohibit. This seems rather obvious when you are talking about random forensic analysis of computers.
March 2008: If the possibility that terrorists might do something means that the 4th amendment must be completely disposed of in that context, the 4th amendment must be completely disposed of in all contexts. The fact is that it is astronomically unlikely that law enforcement will happen upon a terrorist plot at random through random searches of laptop hard drives, and searches of laptop hard drives also do not fit into a specific strategic plan to eliminate terrorism. This is another a posteriori attempt at rationalizing the abuse of a loophole.
August 2008: Federal agents may take a traveler's laptop computer or other electronic device to an off-site location for an unspecified period of time without any suspicion of wrongdoing, as part of border search policies the Department of Homeland Security recently disclosed. "The policies ... are truly alarming," said Sen. Russell Feingold, who is probing the government's border search practices.
September 2008: The problem here is that it tells you what you need to get a warrant, but it doesn't tell you when a warrant is required. It has a loophole. It only requires that searches be reasonable, and reasonable means whatever people think it ought to.
October 2008: The so-called Travelers' Privacy Protection Act, introduced in the Senate by Democratic Senators Russ Feingold and Maria Cantwell on Monday, would roll back portions of the current policy, which gives border agents the right to search or seize anyone's laptop as if it were just another piece of luggage.
August 2009: Many civil liberties issues are complicated and require careful deliberation. This one doesn't. Suspicionless search and seizure of laptop hard drives at border crossings violates fundamental American values.
RE: Judge limits DHS laptop border searches | 
