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CA9: Laptop seized at the border could not be moved 170 miles for its border search

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

A laptop seized at the border could not be moved 170 miles away for a search under the Fourth Amendment. United States v. Cotterman, 09-10139 (9th Cir. March 30, 2011): Today we examine a question of first impression in the Ninth Circuit: whether the search of a laptop computer that begins at the border and ends two days later in a Government forensic computer laboratory almost 170 miles away can still fall within the border search doctrine. The district court considered the issue to be a simple matter of time and space. It concluded that the search of property seized at an international border and moved 170 miles from that border for further search cannot be justified by the border search doctrine. We disagree. We find no basis under the law to distinguish the border search power merely because logic and practicality may require some property presented for entry—and not yet admitted or released from the sovereign’s control—to be transported to a secondary site for adequate inspection...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on March 30, 2011 (boomark / email).