Interesting People mailing list archives
Re: DHS responds on laptop searches; direct action campaigns
From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Wed, 6 Aug 2008 16:56:39 -0700
________________________________________ From: Mike Godwin [mnemonic () gmail com] Sent: Wednesday, August 06, 2008 6:03 PM To: David Farber Cc: ip Subject: Re: [IP] Re: DHS responds on laptop searches; direct action campaigns <Corrected version> Robert Atkinson writes:
Their basic point remains the same customs has checked peopleĀ¹s items at the border for 200 years, so they can check your laptop.It's not a bad point and Jayson Ahern's explanation sounds pretty reasonable. Is there a decent rebuttal? Does anyone believe that Customs shouldn't search briefcases and luggage?
I think this comment is a bit disingenuous. If there is an argument for distinguishing laptops from briefcases and luggage, it does not require an argument that Customs shouldn't search briefcases and luggage. Border searches for contraband are a very old tradition. The tradition of searching and *reading* documents is rather newer, and the Supreme Court jurisprudence on that issue really begins at Boyd v. United States, 116 U.S. 616 (1886). The Supreme Court recognized at the time that production of documents raised both Fourth and Fifth Amendment concerns -- that there is a question of reasonableness and an element of compelled self-incrimination in being required to show all your documents. It's true the law of document searches has been expanded and refined since then, but no so far as to wholly eliminate Fifth Amendment protections. Perhaps you don't think the Fifth Amendment applies to searches for copyright-infringing materials or for child pornography. (Here one has to ask whether the need-to-search tail is big enough to wag the Constitutional-rights dog.) But it is more likely that it does apply if DHS requires disclosure of encryption keys. As for things like Due Process, well, at some point even Robert Atkinson has to ask whether having to submit your whole life to inspection at the border might shock the conscience (the Rochin v. California standard). Of course, if you lack a conscience, there may be nothing that shocks you.
The only response I've seen was:Your skull is a body cavity. And what is a laptop but overflow storage (sort of a storage locker) for your skull when it gets full?Is that the best IPers can do?
I think you haven't seen all responses. Look again. --Mike ------------------------------------------- Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/247/=now RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/247/ Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com
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- DHS responds on laptop searches; direct action campaigns David Farber (Aug 06)
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- Re: DHS responds on laptop searches; direct action campaigns David Farber (Aug 06)
- Re: DHS responds on laptop searches; direct action campaigns David Farber (Aug 06)
- Re: DHS responds on laptop searches; direct action campaigns David Farber (Aug 06)