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Comment by asmithmd1 | Hacker News Reader

Here is well researched 24 page report on what courts have found to be what your rights are at a border crossing

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/homesec/RL31826.pdf

Some surprises to me are that you can be detained for 4 to 6 hours as part of routine screening and body cavity searched without a warrant if you simply match a profile.

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It is well researched by I find the logic justifying warrant-less search specious:

"It has long been established that border crossers’ reasonable expectation of privacy is lower at the border because they generally expect border guards to search persons and property for contraband. Because this is common knowledge, border crossers are put on notice when approaching a border that a search may be imminent, and thus their privacy is “less invaded by [border] searches” when they occur."

More generally that means: We blatantly violate so many people's rights that they're not really being violated.

I don't love the logic at play here either but feel compelled to note that, like it or not, it is the logic that every court in the land will use. Your rights at our country's borders are limited. The Supreme Court has held these limitations to be constitutional. Disagree or not, your only recourse may involve a constitutional amendment.

Eventually the criminals who believe that our only recourse is a constitutional amendment, and are counting on the difficulty of obtaining one, will be in for a rude awakening.

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