What started as a "narrow constitutional exception" now "threatens to swallow the protection it was meant only to qualify," according to an amicus brief filed last week by the Cato Institute asking the Supreme Court to reconsider a petition about warrantless searches of Americans at the border.
The petitioner is George Anibowei, a Texas-based immigration attorney who has, on five separate occasions when traveling internationally, been stopped and had his phone searched at the border by federal agents. The law gives agents the authority to seize and search property—including cellphones and other electronic devices—without a warrant and without suspicion when crossing a border. Federal courts have upheld this policy under the border search exception—which defers to the sovereign's right to protect itself and requires no warrant, probable cause, or suspicion for a search—and have extended the exception to include the contents of a person's cellphone.
