Security News > 2024 > July > US border cops really must get a warrant in NY before searching your phones, devices

US border agents must obtain a warrant, in New York at least, to search anyone's phone and other electronic device when traveling in or out of the country, another federal judge has ruled.

Judge Nina Morrison of the Eastern District of New York issued a decision [PDF] last week that Customs and Border Patrol officials need a warrant to search citizens and non-citizens' electronics in all but the most exceptional of circumstances.

Based on a cursory search, and comments Sultanov made to CBP, officers obtained a warrant to search two additional phones found in his possession, leading to his indictment on alleged possession of CSAM. The judge's decision last week pertained to Sultanov's request to suppress both the contents of his phones found in the search and his comments to CBP. The former was a violation of his Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable search and seizure, Sultanov argued, while entering his statements into evidence violated his fifth amendment right against self-incrimination.

Morrison decided that, while the government was wrong to perform its initial search of Sultanov's phone without a warrant, the evidence would be allowed to stand "Because the search warrant was issued and executed in good faith."

Judge Morrison referred to the Smith case, and a 2014 Supreme Court decision in Riley v California that found police needed a warrant to search the phone of an arrested suspect.

"Guided by the Supreme Court's decision in Riley, this Court concludes that the search of a cell phone at the border is a nonroutine search for Fourth Amendment purposes," Judge Morrison wrote, citing the privacy interest in the "Vast trove of personal information" that can be extracted from a device outside the scope of an investigation.

News URL

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/07/29/us_border_cops_warrant/