Border searches are an exception to the Fourth Amendment’s warrant requirement. The border search exception allows government officials to search, review, copy, and detain cell phones, computers, and other electronic devices at the border without a warrant, probable cause, or any suspicion. In early 2013, the Ninth Circuit reviewed the issue of whether or not any type of suspicion was required at the border, and unlike previous courts, held reasonable suspicion is needed to conduct a forensic examination of electronic storage devices when entering the United States. This standard is currently the most protective in the U.S. This talk will discuss searches of electronic devices at the U.S. Border as well as the recent developments since the Ninth Circuit case. Specifically, it will examine the United States Supreme Court's denial of the petition for Certiorari and the Supreme Court's ruling in Riley v. California, narrowing another exception to the warrant requirement with regards to the search of electronic devices. Riley held that the police cannot search a cell phone seized incidental to the arrest of an individual without a warrant. This talk will help answer the question, "What is the potential impact of this decision on the future of searches of electronic devices at the border?
Whitney Merrill is an attorney and graduate student in computer science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign specializing in information security, computer crime, privacy, surveillance, and Internet law. Her current research focuses on Android privacy, digital forensics, and the legal and usability issues surrounding encryption. She is a member of the Illinois Security Lab, and in her spare time Whitney runs the Crypto & Privacy Village at DEF CON.