A federal court has ruled that US border agents are not allowed to search cell phones without a court order in the Eastern District of New York. The decision applies to both U.S. citizens and international visitors entering the region, which includes New York City, most visited Website created by foreign travelers.
The case stems from an incident in 2022 in which border agents manually searched the phone of a man named Kurbonali Sultanov at New York's JFK airport. He initially refused and then handed over the device when agents told him he had no other option. The phone was later searched further with a court order, but Sultanov requested to suppress the evidence obtained during the initial search, claiming it violated his rights.
Civil liberties groups backed the motion. “As the court recognizes, warrantless searches of electronic devices at the border are an unwarranted intrusion into travelers' private expressions, personal associations, and journalistic activities – activities that the First and Fourth Amendments were designed to protect,” said Scott Wilkens, Senior Advisor, Knight First Amendment InstituteThe court did not dismiss the evidence, however, saying the border agents acted in good faith.
The debate over whether border control agents can search electronic devices has been going on for years. In 2017, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Electronic Frontier Foundation filed a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security on behalf of 11 people who had their phones searched at the border.
