Bill Would Stop Warrantless Border Device Searches of US Citizens (cnn.com)

Senators Ron Wyden and Rand Paul as well as Reps. Jared Polis and Blake Farenthold have introduced legislation that would require law enforcement to first obtain a warrant before they can search our electronic devices when we enter the United States. From a report: A new bipartisan bill would prevent Americans' electronic devices from being searched at the border without a warrant, a response to an increase in such electronic searches. The bill would require a warrant before agents could search Americans' phones, laptops and other devices at entries to the US, including airports and border crossings. "Americans' constitutional rights shouldn't disappear at the border," Wyden said in a statement. "By requiring a warrant to search Americans' devices and prohibiting unreasonable delay, this bill makes sure that border agents are focused on criminals and terrorists instead of wasting their time thumbing through innocent Americans' personal photos and other data."

Comments

Re:The government won't enforce this new law eithe

[Gilgaron]

My understanding is that the current precedent is that the fourth amendment doesn't apply at the border. With a new law explicitly dealing with this border situation, any precedential mushy interpretation of the fourth is irrelevant. If they write it tightly, the justices won't have a way to creatively interpret it, either. We'll see how it goes...

Almost all the Constitution applies to all

[nicolaiplum]

All of the US Constitution applies to citizens, resident non-citizens, and visiting non-resident non-citizens - except being able to vote or to become President. Those are the only parts of the Constitution (as amended) that limit to whom they apply based on citizenship. The rights, for example, of freedom from unreasonable search and seizure, of freedom from lengthy detention or cruel and unusual punishment, of trial by jury only after indictment, protecting free speech, strictly defining treason, and so on apply to foreign residents and visitors as to citizens.

The current US President (Trump) and his administration are wilfully ignoring this fact. The previous US President (Obama) and his administration followed the Constitution on this matter in nearly all (but not every) case.

Therefore this bill should apply to Americans also, and it might well be deemed unconstitutional not to extend to visitors a protection afforded to citzens in line with a Constitutional right.