Comment by billofprivilege | Hacker News Reader

Comment by billofprivilege | Hacker News Reader

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billofprivilege

In the US the Bill of Rights and most other things only apply to citizens (and maybe lawful residents).

CBP agents have broader authority to conduct searches of non-citizens and their belongings at ports of entry without a warrant, including devices like laptops and phones, to determine admissibility to the United States. Searches of citizens generally require a higher standard of suspicion or a warrant.

In the past, someone has taken a flight between Canada and Mexico while under suspicion of the US authorities, and the plane was forced to land and the person forcefully detained, just because they entered US airspace.

Just losing your ESTA over weed (federally a schedule 1 narcotic) is a fairly small punishment considering the CBP enforces federal law.

> In the US the Bill of Rights and most other things only apply to citizens (and maybe lawful residents).

No, the US constitution applies to absolutely everyone in the US. Even illegals.

The constitution itself makes a distinction between citizens and “free people”

That is 100% not true. The Bill of Rights absolutely applies to non-citizens.

Correct. And it protects everyone from “unreasonable “ searches. The SCOTUS has determined that searching foreigners at airports is not unreasonable.

I saw that case. But the TSA agents are like ok otherwise we send you home. I'm happy to make a case but I think it's unlikely to be worth the stress and money

Which has told me as a European that the US is an unreasonable place I don't want to enter anymore, neither for business nor leisure.

But I have full understanding for people who are in a situation that the US is still the smaller evil.

They have also said it’s not unreasonable to detain and in some more narrow situations search American at the border.

Do most EU nations have constitutional protections as strong as the US bill or rights?

It depends what you mean. In the UK our institutions are centuries old. Heck the working class house my grandmother lived in until she died was older than the state of California.

The constitution is only as strong as the institutions that defend it. The U.S. is not there yet but the political nature of the courts and the judiciary are an anathema to a Brit.

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