Ruling: No suspicion needed to search laptops at U.S. borders

O'Scannlain noted that the Supreme Court has called for a reasonable-suspicion standard for certain types of border searches such as those that could cause exceptional damage to property or those conducted in a "particularly offensive manner." Neither of those situations applied in Arnold's case, he said. He also pointed to a decision by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals upholding the warrantless search of a vehicle that was entering that U.S. from Canada.

In that case, the search resulted in the discovery of a videotape -- and, subsequently, other material -- suggestive of child pornography. In that case, the Fourth Circuit court held that warrantless searches were okay because requiring otherwise would have imposed an "unworkable standard" on Customs officials. "We are persuaded by the analysis of our sister circuit," O'Scannlain wrote.

The Ninth Circuit court's ruling comes amid growing concern over the issue of laptop searches at U.S. borders.

In February, the Asian Law Caucus (ALC) and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), two San Francisco-based civil liberties groups, filed a lawsuit in California in response to what they claimed were complaints from travelers of excessive screenings at border entry points, including inspections of the data on laptops, cell phones and other electronic devices.

The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco. It asked the court to order the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Customs and Border Protection (CBP) division to release records relating to its policies and procedures relating to such screenings and searches. In the complaint, the ALC and the EFF noted that they had heard from travelers who claimed that CBP staffers inspected and sometimes copied the contents of their laptop files and cell phone directories without providing any reason for doing so.

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