Border Exception to Fourth Snags Pedophile

A Wharton business professor was arrested by the feds for child pornography after noting his multiple trips to Thailand and then searching his laptop at the border for images and videos of child pornography.

[L. Scott Ward, a professor emeritus at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business,] 63, was arrested Sunday after arriving at Washington's Dulles airport on a flight from Brazil, federal authorities said.

He drew the attention of federal agents because of his unusual number of trips to Thailand, a destination for people seeking sex with minors, according to an affidavit released Monday.

Agents examined his laptop computer and found a video showing two children who looked to be as young as 8 engaged in sexual activity, authorities alleged in the affidavit. Agents also found video recordings of Ward involved in sex acts with boys who look to be about 14 to 16, the affidavit said.

Link.

How were they able to do this without getting a search warrant and having real probable cause? (No judge would give out a search warrant for your house because the feds know you go to Thailand a lot.)

Professor Orin Kerr explains over at the The Volokh Conspiracy

Recent decisions by the Fifth Circuit, Fourth Circuit, and Ninth Circuit have approved computer searches under the "border exception" to the Fourth Amendment, which permits the suspicionless search of property entering and exiting the county. The feds are taking advantage of the fact that computers store so much information, including pictures, and are searching through suspects' computers at the airport before the suspects depart on (or when they arrive from) international flights. When the feds find child pornography on the computer or any storage devices held by the suspect, they arrest the suspect on child porn charges.

What does that mean for you?

Don't be stupid.

Get yourself some encryption on that laptop.

You may not have child pornography, but do you really want the feds snooping through your emails or questioning if your music collection was all legitimately paid for?

Of course, that brings up a more interesting question of what would happen if you refused to unlock your computer for a customs officer.

TrueCrypt, a free encryption solution I've yet to try out, gives you a fake unlock key that leaves one file folder encrypted, even though it looks like it is unlocked. PGP Full Disk encryption, which I use, does not have that capability.

One possibility is your encryption turns out to be a "get out customs free" card.

The other possibility is that you will soon find yourself with a rubber-gloved Customs finger probing something other than your hard drive.

But I'll see if I can get a better answer for you.

In the meantime, be aware that at the border, you have very few rights and you should do what it takes to keep your data locked, whether that's your image collection, journalist's notes, or your company's secrets.

Photo: cobalt123