US border agents can search any traveler's phone or laptop without a warrant; judges say it's like checking suitcases

US border agents can manually search a traveler's phone without a warrant, a court upheld. (AI Photo) Border agents do not require a search warrant to stop a traveler and go through their electronic items like phones and laptops, an appeals court panel has now ruled. They said the First Amendment does not create a separate requirement that officers obtain a warrant before examining information on a person's phone.The case was brought by Chinwendu Alisigwe, a Green Card holder, whose phone was searched at John F Kennedy International Airport in New York City. He was later convicted of bank fraud and money laundering and it was those border agents who found evidence on his phone.Why the court allowed the phone searchThe court treated a manual search of a cellphone as a routine border search. Under the longstanding border-search exception, government officials generally have broad authority to inspect people and belongings entering the United States without obtaining a warrant.The judges rejected the argument that a cellphone should receive special constitutional protection simply because it contains substantially more personal information than conventional belongings such as luggage ...