Kim Zetter reports:
A well-known and respected computer security researcher was detained for several hours Wednesday night by border agents who searched his laptop and cell phones before returning them to him.
The researcher, who goes by the hacker handle Moxie Marlinspike, was met by two U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents at the door of his plane when he arrived at JFK airport on a Jet Blue flight from the Dominican Republic. The agents escorted him to a detention room where they held him for four and a half hours, he says. During that time, a forensic investigator arrived and seized Marlinspike’s laptop and two cell phones, and asked for his passwords to access his devices. Marlinspike refused, and the devices were later returned to him.
Read more on Threat Level.
This is just more abuse of power by the government and it’s ridiculous. The judges who have deferred to the executive branch should all resign in shame and let’s get some judges who actually enforce citizen’s rights to be free of unreasonable search and seizure.