Miranda was a kidnapper and rapist. Danny Escobedo (right to an attorney during interrogation) murdered his brother-in-law. Clarence Earl Gideon (right to a court-appointed attorney) was a career criminal. It's the same with freedom of speech cases: they often involve jerks and assholes; otherwise, they probably wouldn't have gotten arrested in the first place.
You can root for the right outcome without rooting for the defendant.
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.vaed.55...
It's a tough call. On one hand, the feds were really reaching by singling out the defendant for inspection based on:
1) a vague notion that South America is a higher risk of CSAM and sex trafficking (the government's CBP witness couldn't even say that that background rate was higher than Virginia's, which is the state where the defendant entered the country), and
2) a vague FinCEN report that there was some unspecified payment activity between the suspect and an account or accounts believed to be of underage individuals.
On the other hand, the defendant consented to the initial search after being read a miranda warning and signing a waiver, and did in fact have a pattern of catfishing victims to get them to send CSAM. He also had banned coca products (doesn't sound like coca processed into e.g. cocaine, probably just coca leaves or something) that they were citing him for.
The feds or any LE should need some reasonable suspicion of a particular crime before investigating them for that crime, though. I don't think they had that. I think the judge was lazy in concluding that the search was justified, and would rather leave it to appellate courts to exclude evidence if it meant letting the defendant go. What, is anyone who ever transferred any money to a minor, and happens to be coming from anywhere other than a 1st world country, subject to an inspection and initial cursory search of digital devices for anything illegal?
> EFF to Fourth Circuit: Electronic Device Searches at the Border Require a Warrant
The associated regulations, 8 C.F.R. §287.1, interpret "reasonable distance" to mean up to 100 miles from the actual border. But: "In fixing distances not exceeding 100 air miles pursuant to paragraph (a) of this section, chief patrol agents and special agents in charge shall take into consideration topography, confluence of arteries of transportation leading from external boundaries, density of population, possible inconvenience to the traveling public, types of conveyances used, and reliable information as to movements of persons effecting illegal entry into the United States."
The statute and regulation just mean that agents don't need to patrol the border at the literal border--which in some cases runs through the middle of bodies of water. But they must justify the determinations of what's a "reasonable distance" from the border must be based on what's needed to prevent illegal entry into the United States, based on factors such as topography and transportation routes.
The 100 mile "reasonable distance" is used to define where vessels and vehicles may be searched for aliens.
But the warrantless search may only be applied to persons seeking admission for whom an officer has suspicion of reasonable cause for denying the person entry.
Of the 80% of people living within that distance (which is an upper bound, btw; the agents in charge are required to set a bound not to exceed that by taking into account such things as "density of population, possible inconvenience to the traveling public.") almost none can be suspected of being under reasonable cause for denial of entry.
So to do the thing you are fearing, 1) the chief patrol agent has to set the distance to encompass an inappropriately large area in violation of this law, 2) an agent has to stop and search cars randomly, and 3) somehow become suspicious that an occupant is seeking entry and ought to be denied entry, and 4) believe that searching that person's device would reveal information demonstrating that the suspicion is correct.
It's not great, but it's not "80% of Americans can have their devices searched without a warrant".
> The U.S. Border Patrol has stated: "Although motorists are not legally required to answer the questions 'Are you a U.S. citizen, and where are you headed?' they will not be allowed to proceed until the inspecting agent is satisfied that the occupants of vehicles traveling through the checkpoint are legally present in the U.S."
I'm not convinced "the law says you can't do that" is super meaningful in 2026.
Certain to happen.
> 2) an agent has to stop and search cars randomly,
Not at all. "Based on my training and experience, Mexicans drive Subarus. Your driving a Subaru gives me a reasonable suspicion to conduct a non-random stop on you.". Yes, it gets very close to that stupid, and a lot of times they even believe stuff like that. Even if they don't believe it, they know the lie isn't falsifiable. A system that lets random officers get away with unreviewed searches is a problem even if they do have to commit perjury to take advantage of it. Because they will.
> 3) somehow become suspicious that an occupant is seeking entry and ought to be denied entry,
Well, yeah, they're sitting right there in the freaking Subaru. Boom. Reasonable suspicion.
> 4) believe that searching that person's device would reveal information demonstrating that the suspicion is correct.
Well, if the suspicion were correct, it probably would. And if the suspicion is incorrect, even if the suspicion is a deliberate bullshit lie, anything they do find becomes fair game.
Sorry, no. Probable cause. And independent judicial review on your probable cause. Not trivial legitimization of totall bullshit suspicions.
Which would encompass all large coastal cities, the gulf coast and much of Texas/new Mexico /Arizona / socal due to proximity to Mexican border + Chicago/Michigan/etc due to proximity to Canadian border
> Employees traveling internationally on behalf of an organization must take steps to protect sensitive, confidential, or proprietary data carried on electronic devices. U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has broad authority to inspect electronic devices—regardless of citizenship—at U.S. airports, land borders, seaports, and preclearance facilities abroad.
https://www.potomaclaw.com/news-Border-Search-Inspection-of-...
It's extremely complicated:
https://cdt.org/insights/no-warrants-and-half-a-dozen-differ...