A suspicionless physical or x-ray search at the border of an inanimate object such as a person’s luggage or vehicle is generally viewed as reasonable because it does not pose the same degree of intrusiveness as searches of the human body. Furthermore, more intrusive or destructive border searches of such inanimate objects also may not require “reasonable suspicion.” In United States v. Flores-Montano, the Supreme Court held that the dismantling, removal, and reassembly of a vehicle’s fuel tank at the border was justified by the United States’ paramount interest in protecting itself and that it did not require reasonable suspicion. The Court found that the dignity and privacy interests that require reasonable suspicion for highly intrusive searches of the person did not apply to vehicles being examined at the border.

So, this article has lots of information about border searches. There is an argument that if you can completely dismantle a fuel tank at a border and put it back together, you ought to be able to dismantle a computer. However, I think there is also a counter argument, as the contents of a laptop are broad and extremely personal in nature and far more intrusive then searches of other inanimate objects. I think there is room for an amicus brief or even a court case arguing that you cannot search a laptop at a border unless you have reasonable suspicion.

Unfortunately, the bar for reasonable suspicion (which is all the suspicion needed for the "chemical enema" Acidus referenced in his post) seems to be so low that its basically a meaningless standard.

In United States v. Forbicetta, the court found reasonable suspicion to exist where Customs officials acted on the following objective facts: (1) the suspect arrived from Bogota, Colombia, (2) was traveling alone, (3) had only one suitcase and no items requiring Customs inspection, (4) was young, clean-looking, and attractive, and (5) was wearing a loose-fitting dress.

What a bunch of bullshit. Sounds like everyman (or everywoman as the case may be).

So, if there is anything that can be done here, its thin, thin, thin...

Protecting our Perimeter: Border Searches under the 4th Amendment