Homeland Security violates 4th Amendment with warrantless laptop searches
- added July 13, 2008
- 100 responses
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- maasanova
- added this
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- News and Politics (33816)
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Skirting the Fourth Amendment allows the Department of Homeland Security to legally search your laptop with no reasonable or probable cause.
Is a laptop searchable in the same way as a piece of luggage? The Department of Homeland Security believes it is.
For the past 18 months, immigration officials at border entries have been searching and seizing some citizens’ laptops, cellphones, and BlackBerry devices when they return from international trips.
In some cases, the officers go through the files while the traveler is standing there. In others, they take the device for several hours and download the hard drive’s content. After that, it’s unclear what happens to the data.
The Department of Homeland Security contends these searches and seizures of electronic files are vital to detecting terrorists and child pornographers. It also says it has the constitutional authority to do them without a warrant or probable cause.
But many people in the business community disagree, saying DHS is overstepping the Fourth Amendment bounds of permissible routine searches. Some are fighting for Congress to put limits on what can be searched and seized and what happens to the information that’s taken. The civil rights community says the laptop seizures are simply unconstitutional. They want DHS to stop the practice unless there’s at least reasonable suspicion.
Legal scholars say the issue raises the compelling and sometimes clashing interests of privacy rights and the need to protect the US from terrorists and child pornographers. The courts have long held that routine searches at the border are permissible, simply because they take place at the border. Opponents of the current policy say a laptop search is far from “routine.”
“A laptop can hold [the equivalent of] a major university’s library: It can contain your full life,” says Peter Swire, a professor of law at Ohio State University in Columbus. “The government’s never gotten to search your entire life, so this is unprecedented in scale what the government can get.”
Is a laptop searchable in the same way as a piece of luggage? The Department of Homeland Security believes it is.
For the past 18 months, immigration officials at border entries have been searching and seizing some citizens’ laptops, cellphones, and BlackBerry devices when they return from international trips.
In some cases, the officers go through the files while the traveler is standing there. In others, they take the device for several hours and download the hard drive’s content. After that, it’s unclear what happens to the data.
The Department of Homeland Security contends these searches and seizures of electronic files are vital to detecting terrorists and child pornographers. It also says it has the constitutional authority to do them without a warrant or probable cause.
But many people in the business community disagree, saying DHS is overstepping the Fourth Amendment bounds of permissible routine searches. Some are fighting for Congress to put limits on what can be searched and seized and what happens to the information that’s taken. The civil rights community says the laptop seizures are simply unconstitutional. They want DHS to stop the practice unless there’s at least reasonable suspicion.
Legal scholars say the issue raises the compelling and sometimes clashing interests of privacy rights and the need to protect the US from terrorists and child pornographers. The courts have long held that routine searches at the border are permissible, simply because they take place at the border. Opponents of the current policy say a laptop search is far from “routine.”
“A laptop can hold [the equivalent of] a major university’s library: It can contain your full life,” says Peter Swire, a professor of law at Ohio State University in Columbus. “The government’s never gotten to search your entire life, so this is unprecedented in scale what the government can get.”
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This ties in with airport security "losing" thousands of laptops. Count on it.
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How is this legal? How is traveling to another country probable cause for a "reasonable" search and seizure? Homeland security has destroyed what is left of our rights and given us no privacy. The government is too powerful and needs to be stopped.
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The US government is known for its laxness when protecting its own data.
What guarantee do you have that it the data on your laptop or phone won't be sold to CNN or Fox News.
Some of that information could fetch a very hefty price when sold to the right or the wrong people.
It isn't just a question of privacy it is a stupid idea.
A criminal access to that data would be very profitable indeed. How do we know that wasn't the idea in the first place.-
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- CaptSutter
- 1 month ago
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Its just ridiculous that the Dept. of homeland security can even claim to have this right to search my laptop. We all have to do something about this so they stop overstepping their bounds.
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- warhawk187
- 1 month ago
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guess my laptop and cell phone batteries are gonna be missing when i go thru the gates
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People should give these security guys a laptop riddled with viruses and trojans stored on a crippled hard drive that contains questionable _looking_ data.
Waste my time and I'll waste yours. -
That is absolute garbage, the only way to be private is to be hidden away in the middle of nowhere. Suddenly everyone's private life is "public", I can't believe that the closest way to being treated like a celebrity is having your information sifted through. There seems to be a never ending cycle of "Homeland Security" testing the boundaries of how much and to what degree they violate American and foreigners' rights.
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HS is just being abusive to look tough in the eyes of the right-wing. They know at any foreign cyber cafe, you can upload your data before entering the country. Thus there probably cause is invalid unless the person is actually on their list of suspects. As for American citizens, the 4th says you need both probably cause and a warrant. Since the department of Justice is corrupt, no one will stop them until/unless a new non-GOP president is elected or if the Dems in congress get the balls to impeach the entire DOJ and the Bush Admin.
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- tomofnorthcal
- 1 month ago
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The laptop is a home. The home's privacy is sacred. Thus, by reasonable deduction, the laptop's privacy is sacred.
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- OfficiallyVish
- 1 month ago
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Sounds like an even better reason to use encryption on your laptop, if they're going to force people to take stronger measures to protect privacy then people have to take them.Tell them to get a warrant if they want the passwords to the encryption.
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Catch bad guys!
This stuff is nothing to worry about. -
Kennedy and Johnson were notorious for wire taps i dont understand why when W does it all of a sudden something is wrong with it.
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This is going beyond invasion of privacy. It's easy to keep files off the computer. Are they going to start confiscating memory disks and going through your camera too?
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- samanthadian
- 1 month ago
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We didn't have a Homeland Security under Kennedy and Johnson pretending to catch imaginary terrorists.
By the way, dual Israeli-American citizen Michael "Mossad" Chertoff has deemed all Americans terrorists, while he released over 200 Mossad agents rounded up in a post-9/11 FBI dragnet. What do you say about that Americans? -
Thats a little far and if it doesn't get checked soon they'll take even more (of our) liberties.
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- Captain_Beefheart
- 1 month ago
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Look into encryption if you're carrying sensitive/private/pirated material and planning on traveling.
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- Dmitri_Molotov
- 1 month ago
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Good dig, baby boy !
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- keithponder
- 1 month ago
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One by one, the Bill of Rights die. If Americans fought for the Constitution the way the NRA fights for the Second Amedment, Bush and Cheney would both be impeached by now.
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some laptops contain vital information of companies or new technologies in development. with such data the government can just copy paste it and claim it. and thats not right i think.
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This is quite simple. If this continues I will not travel anymore connecting with the US.
Really, North Americans are everyday giving me the impression they are weak for not stepping up.
I do, highly accept and encourage laptop checks for "as it was a bomb". Nothing else. -
It things like this that make me think the government is trying to kill the airlines by making it impractical and violating to fly.
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Thank god Bush is on his way out. He is slowly turning the Dept. of Homeland Security into his own private storm troopers. The new and improved "SS". What's next? Will airport security start waring black uniforms, black leather coats and jack boots? Does Bush want to create a forth reich? It's clear that he is intoxicated with power.
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Let's all welcome big brother into our lives!
Airport Security is a joke laced with lies and illiterate American people for letting it pass.-
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- Midnight_DevilX
- 1 month ago
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"The Department of Homeland Security contends these searches and seizures of electronic files are vital to detecting terrorists and child pornographers."
Child pornographers? Since when are child pornographers a threat to national security? I don't agree with child pornography, I think it's pretty sick, but I don't rank it in the same category as terrorism.
Can't wait to see which group is added next.-
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- sonnydenbow
- 1 month ago
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it will be funny when historians look back at the once great America, and realize that their leaders' oppressive nature was evident for a long time; and we stood by and let them take us from a Democratic Republic, to a closed nation with denizens living in utter fear of their gov't.
sad day in the world when we lose all our basic civil liberties in the sake of protecting us from ourselves.-
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- superfinet
- 1 month ago
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I say that what the criminals who are running this government and most of the world have done is to create the illusion of a war against terrorism, then bilked the tax coffers of everything not tied down, and accepted huge loans from countries they have no real obligation to pay back, countries who's religion, or none there of, and politics they don't agree with.
Declared war on totally destroyed, and defenseless countries, gutted their infrastructures killed and scattered their people, and at the same time destroying the infrastructure of this country, destroying it's financial structure, and stripping the general public of all of it's safety nets regarding civil and human rights.
This leaves no one safe but the super-rich, super-powerful warmongering elite who have systematically filled their pockets with the spoils of gutted companies and exorbitant price gouging .
Laptops, computers, the internet, etc. are just part of a bigger scheme. What will be left after all of this is a country full of poor, hungry, and defenseless people begging for another "White" Republican leader to get them out of this mess..heheheh. Then someone with the psyche of a Hitler can step in and blame a group of "certain" people for the problems. The rest is history! -
Absurd. We need to impeach whoever voted for this. Homeland Security (a name designed to deflect from the real mission) is implementing the power the legislators gave it.
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If Homeland Security tried to take my laptop I would fight tooth and nail. That thing holds my business, very private information, all my passwords to everything in my life, and my key to earning money. If they confiscated it it would damage my life severely. What would they do? Throw me in jail for protecting my property?
Serial numbers were 'absolutely necessary' for keeping track of the jews in the 30's and 40's werent they...
There is no massive terrorist threat that warrants this kind of invasion of privacy! -
If you're not afraid of this government by now, then you never will be. If you want a real wakeup call, take a little time and read the "Patriot Act". Once you read it you will understand exactly why the HS says it has the right to search anything it wants to, with no probable cause or warrant. Someone commented on the HS acting like the "SS", reminiscent of the "Third Reich". In the "Patriot Act" there is a provision for the creation of the "Secret Service Uniform Division" also known as the "SS". It will oversee all law enforcement in America. It is of little consequence if they wear Leather Coats and Jack Boots or Togas, they have complete autonomy to enforce any law (real or contrived) in the name of "national security".
My question to you is, do you remember voting on the Patriot Act? I don't. Have we as Americans demanded its repeal? I don't think so. If you're appalled, as you should be, we need to blame ourselves. -
Believe this or not, the south is still steaming over losing the civil war, losing the right to enslave Africans, losing some of their wealth.
They have (The southern "White" power structure), been trying to get payback ever since, in any way that they can. Their legacy spans centuries through the secret societies they formed during the war for independence.
The wealthy "White" families and their lackeys have maintained power and the ability to scheme, connive, and psychologically sway like minded people to their way of thinking and reacting throughout time.
These people do not like the fact that people of color are trying to excel in this country, for they feel that since they stole this country from the "Indians", and used slaves to build it, and because they fought off their parent (England), to keep it, that it belongs exclusively to them.
They cringe at the thought of spending any money to create national health and education, because it would benefit all the different colors.
If this country were all "White" like most of the European countries, it would have those national benefits, like all European countries.
The country is psychologically immersed in race hate or I should say color hate because all humans are one race, and other kinds of misconceptions of the human condition that allows many to viciously attack and criticize others as being confused, ignorant, and basically asinine.
Those who vote for what's in power now are really confused as to what is really good for them. They don't realize that the people that they have placed into power are the same who are destroying them too!
As for our rights, they are being chipped away section by section. Actually these so called "rights" are an illusion. If you go up against the status-quo you will soon see what your "rights" really amount to. Notebook computers are just the tip of the iceberg. -
"The Department of Homeland Security contends these searches and seizures of electronic files are vital to detecting terrorists and child pornographers. It also says it has the constitutional authority to do them without a warrant or probable cause."
Um, pornographers??? Since when did it become the mission of "Homeland Security" to intercept ponographers?? It was always my understanding that HS was established to protect us from terrorism. I'm certainly not defending ponographers but this is a classic example of "mission creep" and what most people were afraid was going to happen. Today's its ponographers, tomorrow, dead-beat dads and the next day political activists who oppose what the government is doing. Despite what the law says, this kind of spying is ILLEGAL under the fourth amendment. NEVER forget that. Also never forget that this kind of warantless spying is what the Russians KGB and East German Stazi were notorious for. In the hands of a benevolent government this kind of power is dangerous, in the hands of despots, deadly. -
Lets just change the name of the country to Oceania.
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- ShadesOfInsanity
- 1 month ago
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Homeland Security and the TSA are full of lowlifes and thieves as it is. Just look at how many people (myself included - to the tune of $8000) have had things stolen from baggage by the TSA.
This just gives them another way to steal.-
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- dandrews1969
- 1 month ago
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well, it may be constitutionally unsound, it may stand against everything it means to be a conservative (or american), it may be flat out illegal, BUT BY GOD!...we'll be safe, because of this terrorists will be sure to stay out of po'dunk Nebraska.
unless Bush simply ignores the CIA again. -
OK this is how it's going to go down..We are losing our privacy at an alarming rate, we are already susceptible to wiretaps, e-mail and chat scans.
We will have no power to stop this as long as a Republican is in office and maybe even a Democrat. So, who's going to be most susceptible to the laptop/cell phone check?
Well firstly most "White" businessmen/women will be overlooked, some "White" people will be checked, mostly private citizens touring or visiting, and some known liberals.
Secondly, in the stop line will be Asians and Hispanics or if you use colors "Yellow" and "Brown". They will be more frequently stopped whether they are a businessperson or not.
The third and most stopped will be "Black" people or African-Americans if you will, they are the most reviled and hated people on the planet and are most subjected to scrutiny and abuse.
