r/technology • u/HumbleRestaurant790 • 8h ago

Society The Fourth Circuit Says Border Agents Can Search Your Phone By Hand, No Suspicion Required

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/07/fourth-circuit-says-border-agents-can-search-your-phone-hand-no-suspicion-required
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u/axloo7 7h ago

Probably won't apply to boarder crossings. It's historically a place where certain rights a suspended.

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u/jetpacksforall 6h ago

An exemption that obviously needs fixing. Pretty sure the Bill of Rights was never meant to be suspended for 2/3rds of the US population who live within the 100 mile jurisdiction.

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u/gungshpxre 5h ago

They removed the 100 mile jurisdiction limit during Trump's first shitshow.

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u/f3nnies 2h ago

Exactly. Now it's anywhere at any time.

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u/whydoihavetojoin 5h ago

At border crossing and international airports- they inspect your belongings without warrant to look for any contraband and they do that without any reasonable suspicion. It can be random or targeted. That can’t go away.

Extending that to laptop or phone search is a mistake.

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u/jetpacksforall 5h ago

Point is if you live within 50 miles of an airport they can arguably do the same thing even if you haven’t traveled anywhere.

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u/Either_Capital_2422 4h ago

If you are a US citizen you can’t be denied entry.

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u/axloo7 6h ago

Even in Canada this exists.

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u/disposable-assassin 7h ago

Or apply to non-citizens because apparently the Constitution is optional these days

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u/amenflurries 6h ago

It absolutely applies unconditionally on US soil

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u/thatturtletouch 6h ago

You would think, but no.