Last week I posted about David House, a man who got his laptop, camera, and USB cable snatched by Homeland Security for no definitive reason beyond his association with an organization supporting Bradley Manning. The action’s since been rubber stamped by a U.S. district court, a ruling coming just a few days before the Supreme Court took it to a whole new level, allowing strip-searches of anyone detained for most anything. Why? You already know the answer.After House announced he was suing the government for illegal search and seizure, they attempted to have the case dismissed, arguing that the particulars of House’s detention were legally covered by the rules of a standard border search. They stated, "There is no basis for the Court to conclude that searches of laptops or other electronic devices at the border should be subjected to a different standard than that for other closed containers. Nor is there a basis for the Court to conclude that Plaintiff’s First Amendment rights were violated by the routine search and detention of his devices at the border.”Read the rest over at Motherboard.
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