A three-judge panel consisting of Second Circuit judges Steven J. Menashi and Eunice C. Lee and U.S. District Judge Hector Gonzalez, sitting by designation, ruled on Thursday that federal agents can search and photograph the contents of a traveler’s cellphone at the border without a warrant or reasonable suspicion of criminal activity.
The ruling cited the Supreme Court in U.S. v. Ramsey (1977), stating, “Searches made at the border, pursuant to the longstanding right of the sovereign to protect itself by stopping and examining persons and property crossing into this country, are reasonable simply by virtue of the fact that they occur at the border . . .”
In previous federal district court cases within the Second Circuit, U.S. v. Smith (2023) and U.S. v. Sultanov (2024), judges held that law enforcement needed a warrant before searching a suspect’s cell phone at the border. The Second Circuit rejected those rulings, stating, “The ‘longstanding recognition that searches at our borders without probable cause and without a warrant are nonetheless ‘reasonable’ has a history as old as the Fourth Amendment itself.’ United States v. Ramsey, 431 U.S. 606, 619 (1977).”
Chinwendu Alisigwe, a permanent resident of the United States, brought on the case after being convicted in 2024 of bank fraud and money laundering conspiracy and sentenced to five years in prison.