The #FourthCircuit Says #Border Agents Can #Search Your #Phone By Hand, No Suspicion Required The Fourth Circuit issued a disappointing opinion in U.S. v. Belmonte Cardozo, a case in which @eff@mastodon.social filed an amicus brief, alongside the national #ACLU, its #Maryland , #NorthCarolina , #SouthCarolina , and #Virginia affiliates, and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (#NACDL ). We argued that electronic device searches at the border should require a #warrant based on probable cause, but at minimum, regardless of whether an officer searches by hand or with #forensic software that plugs into a device and downloads its entire contents for search, the same #FourthAmendment standard should apply to all device searches at the border. #privacy https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/07/fourth-circuit-says-border-agents-can-search-your-phone-hand-no-suspicion-required