United States v. Smith
Court: U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
Date Filed: Nov. 27, 2024
Background: In March 2021, U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents detained Jatiek Smith at Newark Liberty International Airport after he returned from a trip to Jamaica and, without a warrant, searched his cellphone and made a copy of its contents.
The government later obtained a warrant to search a forensic copy of Smith’s phone and used that evidence to apply for a wiretap, which was authorized by a judge.
Smith filed a motion to suppress the evidence obtained from the phone search and the wiretap, arguing that they resulted from the government’s original warrantless border search, which violated the Fourth Amendment.
In May 2023, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York concluded that the government must obtain a warrant to search travelers’ electronic devices at the border. However, the court denied Smith’s motion to suppress, in part because the government ultimately ended up obtaining a warrant to search Smith’s phone.
Smith appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
Our Position: In a joint friend-of-the-court brief, the Reporters Committee and the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University argue that the Second Circuit should hold that the government’s searches of Smith’s cellphone violated the Constitution.
- Government searches of electronic devices burden First and Fourth Amendment freedoms.
- The government’s warrantless searches of Smith’s cellphone were unconstitutional.
From the Brief: “Unfettered government access to journalists’ devices chills the willingness of sources to share information with journalists, and thereby impedes journalists’ ability to gather the news and inform the public. Also, in the absence of a warrant requirement, border agents can use device searches in attempts to suppress press coverage that government officials perceive as unfavorable.”
Related: Since 2020, the Reporters Committee and the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University have teamed up to file several friend-of-the-court briefs urging federal courts to find that warrantless cellphone searches at the border are unconstitutional. Check out our Q&A with Reporters Committee Staff Attorney Grayson Clary to learn more about why this issue poses such a concern for journalists and their sources.