Back in February 2013, the Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released an executive summary (PDF) of its findings to justify warrantless border searches of laptops. However, that summary did not include any substantial analysis of the reasoning the government provides.
On Wednesday, though, in response to a Freedom of Information Act request filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the DHS released (PDF) its complete December 2011 Civil Rights/Civil Liberties Impact Assessment.
What is the government’s constitutionally based reasoning for such searches? Frankly, we don’t know. A lot of it is redacted.
On Page 18 of the 52-page document under the section entitled “First Amendment,” several paragraphs are completely blacked out.
