Feingold Points Out That DHS's Chertoff Is Misleading On Border Laptop Searches
from the reasonable-cause? dept
Following the release of Homeland Security's policies for searching laptops at the border, where the rules are, effectively, "anything goes," DHS boss Michael Chertoff claimed that laptop searches were only done when the border guard had a "suspicion" and placed that individual in "secondary inspection." However, Senator Russ Feingold has now hit back, pointing out that the official DHS policies say absolutely nothing about there needing to be a suspicion or that laptop searches only happen on secondary inspection. If Chertoff were being honest, why wouldn't those things be in the official policy? And, if Chertoff insists that DHS will only do searches when there is a real suspicion, what's wrong with following the "probable cause" standard that it insists it should be allowed to ignore? It's nice to see Senator Feingold asking these questions.Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Filed Under: border searches, customs, homeland security, laptops, michael chertoff, russ feingold, senate
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Honesty
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Re:
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Any first hand tales of woe?
US border guards or DHS/TSA employees?
I'd like to hear about the circumstances.
I had my laptop searched, but it was by
Canadian border guards and seemed to
be standard operating procedure for them
in the mid-90's.
Just curious...
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LAPTOP SEARCHES
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Feingold is the man
As someone who lives several states away, I've been a great pleasure when Feingold responds to issues from misplaced Wisconsinites.
It would be nice if my own state's Senators Kay Bailey and John Cornyn took as much interest in what was happening around America.
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Laptop Searches
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DHS/probable cause/searches
--Glenn
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Chartoffs a liar . . . .
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