![]() Unfortunately, the government doesn’t agree, and the law on the matter is far from settled. As the ACLU has argued in various court filings, there’s no reason the Constitution’s safeguards against unwarranted searches shouldn’t also apply when we travel internationally given the ubiquity of these devices, and their ever-growing capacity to track the minutiae of our private lives. The Supreme Court recognized this reality when it ruled in 2014 that the Constitution requires the police to obtain a warrant to search the smartphone of someone under arrest. They paint a far more detailed picture of our private lives than, say, a piece of luggage. ![]() Our smartphones store detailed accounts of our conversations, professional lives, whereabouts, and web-browsing habits. The ACLU takes issue with this position generally, especially when it comes to electronic devices like smartphones and laptops. The government has long claimed that Fourth Amendment protections prohibiting warrantless searches don’t apply at the border. We’ve been getting a lot of questions about when border agents can legally conduct searches of travelers’ electronic devices at international airports and other ports of entry. This post was updated on January 9, 2018.
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