The US 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is due to hear a case with significant long term implications. The question at hand is whether US border guards can search the contents of a laptop in the same manner that they search luggage or whether a more stringent standard applies. In 2006 the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California threw out a case against Michael Timothy Arnold by disallowing evidence obtained in a random search of his computer without any probably cause when he re-entered the US at LAX. Mr. Arnold does not present a very sympathetic case in that what is at issue here is most probably child pornography. Nonetheless the issue is important and hopefully the courts will continue to agree that this practice is electronic eavesdropping without probably cause and with a warrant. I have much hope for that unless the case reaches SCOTUS in which case all bets are off.
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