October 01, 2026
Documents
Anibowei v. Blanche Amicus brief
The Supreme Court is being asked to decide whether the government may search the digital contents of Americans’ cell phones at the border and international airports without first providing a valid reason and obtaining a warrant.
The federal government has long exercised broad authority to conduct searches at the nation’s international borders and airports. Historically, that authority has been tied to the government’s responsibility to regulate entry into the United States, enforce customs laws and prevent contraband from being brought into the country.
Modern technology, however, has complicated the constitutional assumptions underlying that traditional rule.
A suitcase contains a finite collection of physical items that a traveler chooses to carry. A modern smartphone can contain years of private communications, photographs, financial records, medical information, internet activity, location histories and other sensitive information. It can provide a detailed record of where a person has been, whom that person communicates with, what he or she reads, purchases and searches for, and, in some instances, information relating to activities inside the home.
That distinction is at the center of Anibowei v. Blanche, a case in which the U.S. Supreme Court has been asked to review the constitutionality of warrantless cell phone searches at international borders and airports. In calling on the Court to affirm that the government must obtain a warrant before searching the digital contents of Americans’ electronic devices at an international border, The Rutherford Institute argues that applying a doctrine developed for searches of physical goods and luggage to modern smartphones goes far beyond the purpose of the border-search exception and fails to account for the extraordinary privacy interests implicated by digital devices.
