BOSTON (Reuters) – A federal appeals court ruled that U.S. border agents do not need warrants to search travelers’ smartphones and laptops at airports and other U.S. ports of entry, a practice that grew during the Trump administration.
The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston late on Tuesday ruled against 11 travelers subjected to warrantless device searches at the border who argued that current policies governing them were unconstitutional.
Policies of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement allowed agents to perform suspicionless, “basic” device searches and more-intrusive, “advanced” searches with reasonable suspicion of a crime.
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