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.
Hide this

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.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: border searches, customs, homeland security, laptops, michael chertoff, russ feingold, senate


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  1. identicon
    Bobby Ganoosh, 8 Aug 2008 @ 2:12pm

    Honesty

    Honesty is not a policy embraced by this administration. Fearmongering, lying and pandering are, though.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 8 Aug 2008 @ 2:17pm

    Feingold should be Obama's veep.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 8 Aug 2008 @ 2:37pm

    Hey, you're not supposed to think about that. It's for your own safety.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  4. identicon
    Anonymous of Course, 8 Aug 2008 @ 2:54pm

    Any first hand tales of woe?

    Has anyone here had their laptop searched by
    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...

    link to this | view in thread ]

  5. identicon
    D TEEL, 8 Aug 2008 @ 2:58pm

    LAPTOP SEARCHES

    WE SHOULD BE ASKING LOTS OF QUESTIONS ABOUT FUTURE SURVEILLANCE TECHNIQUES. SHOULDN'T THERE BE PROBABLE CAUSE FOR THAT WIRELESS AUDIO BUTTON STUCK UNDER YOUR LAPEL, THAT RFID TRANSMITTER DROPPED IN YOUR POCKET, AND WHAT ABOUT THAT BIOSENSOR SHOT INTO YOUR ARM?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  6. identicon
    Dan, 8 Aug 2008 @ 3:11pm

    Thats my senator. Ata boy Russ, DHS BS and lies need to be challenged.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  7. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 8 Aug 2008 @ 3:35pm

    I do think its crap that DHS can search any electronic device it sees fit, for any reason. A smart person would just upload what ever it is they had to a server, then download it once they got to there destination, how are they going to combat that? Someone needs to over see the DHS policies and NOT the people that wrote them, like may hmmmmmm.... JUDGES?!

    link to this | view in thread ]

  8. identicon
    Jake, 8 Aug 2008 @ 4:06pm

    It's probably small comfort, but unless some REMF introduces a quota, I suspect that few Border Patrol officers will waste their time and energy on searching laptops without a compelling reason to do so. Honestly, your biggest problem is not the fact that the odd Border Patrol officer whose idea of a compelling reason is 'he looked like an Arab' is harder to reprimand; it's the fact that just subscribing to a particular set of values, however abhorrent those values may be, is now an indictable offence in the first country in the world to make a real go of democracy.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  9. identicon
    Wendy M, 8 Aug 2008 @ 4:20pm

    Feingold is the man

    Yes, Dan. Keep voting him in!

    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.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  10. identicon
    Rekrul, 8 Aug 2008 @ 4:30pm

    Rig your laptop so that as soon as you login, it starts playing 2 Girls, 1 Cup and can't be used until the video has played in its entirety.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  11. identicon
    Known Coward, 8 Aug 2008 @ 6:05pm

    Laptop Searches

    DHS can kiss my ass.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  12. identicon
    Glenn Charles, 9 Aug 2008 @ 4:52am

    DHS/probable cause/searches

    It is after all under the umbrella of the original National Security Act. Faith in politicians, or press releases? really.
    --Glenn

    link to this | view in thread ]

  13. identicon
    Dustin, 9 Aug 2008 @ 11:19am

    Re:

    ... then who would I vote for in my Senate race? :(

    link to this | view in thread ]

  14. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 11 Aug 2008 @ 12:35pm

    Chartoffs a liar . . . .

    Well he is a Bush appointee, so we know he wasn’t chosen for his competence, thats just not how they roll.

    link to this | view in thread ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.