In Riley v. California,1 the U.S. Supreme Court adjusted the direction of Fourth Amendment law with respect to searches of digital devices seized incident to arrest by requiring that in most cases police obtain search warrants based upon the probable cause standard. In doing so, the court acknowledged the intrusiveness of searches involving today’s digital media given their capacity to store encyclopedia size chunks of the intimate moments in a person’s life. Riley raises—and this article addresses—the issue of what impact, if any, does it have on the historical border search exception to the warrant requirement under the Fourth Amendment.

At one time, the loyal four-legged sentinel with his or her law enforcement handler stood guard at most major international airports in this country, their main mission being to stop the flow of dangerous drugs into the United States. The realities of the post 9/11 era increased the mission to include searching for weapons of mass destruction (WMDs), and other dangerous forms of contraband, including weapons, counterfeit drugs, and other items that could be secreted within digital devices. Given that various forms of contraband may be hidden in digital devices, and the ubiquitous nature of such digital devices, searches of these devices now play a greater role in border interdiction methodology. Consequently, border search issues with respect to digital media have more frequently been the subject of judicial scrutiny.

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