Your phone, your smartwatch, your private life...how much can CBP search without a warrant?
Let's examine the 100-mile border zone encompassing an estimated 228 million Americans and school superintendent Wilmer Chavarria’s fight against warrantless device searches. From one traveler’s ordeal to the broader expansion of government surveillance, we explore digital privacy, the Fourth Amendment, and why protecting our rights means holding both parties accountable.
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SOURCES & CITATIONS
Reason: https://reason.com/2026/07/13/border-cops-can-search-your-phone-whenever-they-want-if-youre-within-100-miles-of-the-border/
CBP: https://www.cbp.gov/document/directives/cbp-directive-no-3340-049b-border-search-electronic-devices
CBP (via Reason): https://reason.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/2018-01-04_cbp_electronic_searches.pdf
Fourth Circuit (via Justia): https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/ca4/25-4239/25-4239-2026-07-13.html
Electronic Frontier Foundation: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/07/fourth-circuit-says-border-agents-can-search-your-phone-hand-no-suspicion-required
Pacific Legal Foundation: https://pacificlegal.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/SR-1299-Sweetland-Peikoff-and-Scacchi-Policy-Explainer-Searches-of-Electronic-Devices-at-Ports-of-Entry.pdf
Pacific Legal Foundation: https://pacificlegal.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/SR-718-Scacchi-Sweetland-and-Piekoff-Policy-Explainer-The-Fourth-Amendment-Free-Zone-in-the-United-States-v1.pdf
Pacific Legal Foundation: https://pacificlegal.org/case/chavarria-border-searches-fourth-amendment/
Pacific Legal Foundation: https://pacificlegal.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Chavarria-v.-DHS_PLF-Complaint_12.10.25.pdf
VTDigger: https://vtdigger.org/2025/12/14/winooski-superintendent-testifies-in-dc-sues-dhs-for-detainment-and-harassment-by-immigration-authorities/
TheTravel: https://www.thetravel.com/us-department-of-homeland-security-issues-statement-wilmer-chavarria-detained-houston-airport-fourth-amendment-violations-lawsuit/
U.S. Supreme Court (via Justia): https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/573/373/
Berardi Immigration Law: https://berardiimmigrationlaw.com/cbp-can-now-search-your-phone-without-reasonable-suspicion/
Reason: https://reason.com/2019/11/13/judge-rules-feds-need-reasonable-suspicion-before-searching-tech-devices-at-the-border/
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"The Clerisy" with Loren Moss comes out of a simple proposition: If we encourage thinking, we will have a more thoughtful society. Peter Bernstein was right when he said "The riskiest moment is when you think you're right," and thus we hope to introduce heterodox thinking to the debate that typically peddles a defective and false "left vs. right" dichotomy. This endeavor comes out of a sense of urgent responsibility: "If those who know why and how neglect to act, those who do not know will act, and the world will continue to flounder."- Alfred Korzybski, 1921