DHS Can Seize Your Electronics Within 100 Mi.of US Border, Says DHS 597
dreamstateseven writes "In a not-so-unexpected move, the Department of Homeland Security has concluded that travelers along the nation's borders may have their electronics seized and the contents of those devices examined for any reason whatsoever — all in the name of national security. According to legal precedent, the Fourth Amendment — the right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures — does not apply along the border. The memo highlights the friction between today's reality that electronic devices have become virtual extensions of ourselves housing everything from e-mail to instant-message chats to photos and our papers and effects — juxtaposed against the government's stated quest for national security. By the way, the government contends the Fourth-Amendment-Free Zone stretches 100 miles inland from the nation's actual border."
Re:Fuck you DHS (Score:0, Funny)
Re:How about the US-Canadian/US-Mexico border? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:100 miles inland (Score:5, Funny)
Look at a map of the original United States, and then imagine a 100-mile zone inside those borders. It looks to me like virtually the entire country would have been within 100 miles of a border. Somehow, I doubt that those who wrote the Bill of Rights would have agreed that they didn't intend it to apply to 90% of their country.
I blame inflation.
I bet 100 miles in 2013 is worth no more than 2 miles back then.
No, not violence, but creative irony (Score:4, Funny)
Instead of violence, I wish them perpetual GroundHog Day at the transparent airport security booth of the coughing Dr. Longfingers.
Re:How about the US-Canadian/US-Mexico border? (Score:5, Funny)
What about anybody living within 100 miles of space? That's a border too.
Re:Bullshit. (Score:5, Funny)
"If everything people say de Tocqueville said that he didn't actually say [google.com] were put into a single book, I'll bet it would be longer than Democracy in America."
-- Julius Caesar
Re:How about the US-Canadian/US-Mexico border? (Score:4, Funny)
To translate your post so Mashiki could understand it:
A. YWTSWJSTO, RTUASOA.
Re:So that means... (Score:5, Funny)
In Detroit? Everyone foolish enough to bring electronics into Detroit gets them taken immediately. Not by DHS agents.
Re:How about the US-Canadian/US-Mexico border? (Score:5, Funny)
I guess living in peach is too much to ask of this country anymore.
James?
Re:How about the US-Canadian/US-Mexico border? (Score:5, Funny)
I don't speak for the TSA, but if I were an honest, god-fearing, terrorist-hating TSA official, hell-bent on winning the good fight for freedom and values we're fighting against our enemies, I'd be hard-pressed not to point out to you the simple fact that terrorists can embark anywhere on the US side of the lake shores, making the shoreline the first line of d-fence. It would be obvious to me that to confront the terrorist threat along the shoreline and marine borders effectively, the 100-mile freedom zones should naturally extend from the beach inland, and not be arbitrarily defined from some imaginary liberal line you call "border".
Also, were I working for the TSA, I'd say that your soft position on the threats facing this great country makes you a help to the terrorists and a conduit of the dangers terrorism poses to the American way of life. You should repent and amend your ways.