Americans’ Fourth Amendment protection from unreasonable searches and seizures has been eroded at points of re-entry to the United States, where border officials are free to search Americans’ cell phones without a warrant.
Since the 2014 Supreme Court case Riley v. California, warrantless searches of personal devices—including cell phones, computers, and online accounts—have been considered a violation of the Fourth Amendment. The unanimous Supreme Court decision was based, in part, on the fact that the personal information and things most people save on cell phones and devices today are similar to the types of physical items that courts had long-established law
