US Court Allows Manual Phone Searches at Airports

Hyderabad:A US appeals court has ruled that Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers can manually search a traveller’s mobile phone at the border or an airport without a warrant or probable cause, holding that such searches do not violate the Fourth Amendment. The ruling, issued on September 17 by the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, stated that no suspicion is required before the government conducts a manual search of a traveller’s cellphone at the border.

The court noted that airports are considered the “functional equivalent” of international borders. It held that property searches at the border are treated as routine and do not require reasonable suspicion. Since a mobile phone is considered property, the same principle applies to manual searches, the court said.

It rejected an argument based on a 2014 US Supreme Court ruling that recognised greater privacy protections for mobile phones during arrests, saying that case dealt with a different legal exception and did not alter border search rules.

The case involved Chinwendu Alisigwe, a lawful permanent resident stopped twice at John F Kennedy International Airport in New York. On one occasion, an officer asked him to unlock his phone, scrolled through his photo gallery and photographed information. On another, officers manually reviewed the phone and photographed a WhatsApp message.

The judgment comes amid reports from Indian tourists of being subjected to additional questioning at US airports, with some saying authorities checked their phones and social media accounts. Tourists said they were asked to show mobile phones and apps, though social media screening had earlier been applied to H‑1B visa holders and F‑1 student applicants, not B‑1/B‑2 visa tourists.

The court clarified that its ruling applied only to manual searches and did not decide whether more sophisticated forensic searches, such as off‑site data analysis, might require reasonable suspicion.