Lead Opinion
This appeal presents the issue whether warrantless forensic searches of two cell phones at the border violated the Fourth Amendment. U.S. Const. amend IV. Hernando Javier Vergara appeals the denial of his motion to suppress evidence found on two cell phones that he carried on a cruise from Cozumel, Mexico to Tampa, Florida. He argues that the recent decision of the Supreme Court in *1311Riley v. California , --- U.S. ----,
I. BACKGROUND
Vergara returned to Tampa, Florida, on a cruise ship from Cozumel, Mexico, with three phones: a Samsung phone inside a bag in his luggage, an LG phone, and an iPhone. Christopher Ragan, an officer with Customs and Border Protection, identified Vergara and searched his luggage. When Ragan found the Samsung phone in Vergara's luggage, he asked Vergara to turn the phone on and then looked through the phone for about five minutes. During this search, Ragan found a video of two topless female minors. After watching a few seconds of that video, Ragan called investigators for the Department of Homeland Security.
After viewing the video and interviewing Vergara, Terri Botterbusch, a special agent with the Department of Homeland Security, decided to have all three phones forensically examined. Agents later returned the iPhone to Vergara's niece after a forensic examination revealed that it did not contain any child pornography.
A forensic examination of the Samsung and LG phones conducted that day revealed more than 100 images and videos, "the production of which involved the use of a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct and the visual depictions were of such conduct." Neither the earlier manual search nor the forensic examinations damaged the phones. A grand jury later indicted Vergara on two counts: (1) that he "did knowingly transport in and affecting interstate and foreign commerce one or more visual depictions, the production of which involved the use of a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct and such visual depictions were of such conduct"; and (2) that he "did knowingly possess numerous matters that had been shipped and transported using any means and facility of interstate and foreign commerce, including by computer, which matters contained visual depictions of minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct and the production of which involved the use of minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct." See
Vergara filed a motion to suppress the evidence obtained from his cell phones. The court held a suppression hearing, at which Ragan and Botterbusch testified, and later denied Vergara's motion. The district court ruled that the initial manual search did not require reasonable suspicion and found that "in any event, ... Agent Ragan had reasonable suspicion to search the applications and settings of the phone for evidence of child pornography." The district court also rejected Vergara's argument that Riley v. California , --- U.S. ----,
*1312At a later bench trial, the district court found Vergara guilty of both counts and later sentenced him to ninety-six months of imprisonment on each count concurrently followed by supervision for life.
II. STANDARD OF REVIEW
"With regard to [a] motion to suppress, we review the district court's factual findings for clear error and its legal conclusions de novo ." United States v. Newsome ,
III. DISCUSSION
The Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution provides, "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause ...." U.S. Const. amend. IV. Ordinarily, "where a search is undertaken by law enforcement officials to discover evidence of criminal wrongdoing, reasonableness ... requires the obtaining of a judicial warrant." Riley ,
The forensic searches of Vergara's phones required neither a warrant nor probable cause. "The Supreme Court has consistently held that border searches are not subject to the probable cause and warrant requirements of the Fourth Amendment." United States v. Vega-Barvo ,
Vergara argues that Riley required a warrant for both the manual and the forensic searches of his phones, but he challenges only the forensic searches because no evidence from the manual search was admitted as evidence against him. In Riley , the Supreme Court addressed the constitutionality of warrantless manual searches of cell phones following the arrest of two defendants in the United States.
Border searches have long been excepted from warrant and probable cause requirements, *1313and the holding of Riley does not change this rule. Vergara points to language from Riley about the "consequences for privacy" involved in a search of a cell phone.
IV. CONCLUSION
We AFFIRM Vergara's judgment of conviction and sentence.
Dissenting Opinion
In this case we decide for the first time whether a warrantless forensic search of a cell phone at the United States border comports with the Fourth Amendment. To determine whether a law enforcement practice is constitutional, courts must balance its promotion of legitimate government interests against its intrusion on an individual's Fourth Amendment rights. United States v. Montoya de Hernandez ,
The majority opinion concludes that this balance weighs heavily in the government's favor because the searches occurred at the border. I agree with the majority that the government's interest in protecting the nation is at its peak at the border, but I disagree with the majority's dismissal of the significant privacy interests implicated in cell phone searches, as articulated by the Supreme Court in Riley v. California , --- U.S. ----,
I. BACKGROUND
Vergara, a United States citizen, arrived at the Port of Tampa, Florida, having returned from a vacation in Cozumel, Mexico. Before his return, U.S. Customs and Border Protection ("CBP") had identified Vergara based on his prior conviction for possession of child pornography, placing him on a list of the day's "lookouts." Individuals on the list are subjected to secondary screening at the border, which involves additional questioning and searching.
When Vergara arrived at the port, CBP Agent Christopher Ragan escorted him to the secondary inspection area. In Vergara's luggage, Ragan found two cell phones, a Samsung phone and an iPhone. Vergara also had a third cell phone on his person. Ragan took the Samsung phone and began looking through the photos on it, as well as "a couple apps," finding nothing of interest. Doc. 63 at 12.
The agents "[did not] have the capability to forensic[ally] analyze the phone at the port of entry." Doc. 63 at 23. Botterbusch therefore seized Vergara's cell phones and took them to her office so "forensic agents" could conduct a full forensic examination. Id. at 31. The record does not detail the mechanics of the forensic examination, but Botterbusch testified that it involved the "extraction of data" from the cell phones and that she believed it had been completed "that afternoon." Id. at 39. The forensic search ultimately revealed more than 100 images and videos of child pornography and erotica stored on Vergara's phones.
Based on evidence procured from the forensic search, Vergara was arrested and charged with knowingly transporting child pornography, in violation of
II. DISCUSSION
The Fourth Amendment establishes "[t]he right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures ...." U.S. Const. amend IV. "As the text makes clear, the ultimate touchstone of the Fourth Amendment is reasonableness." Riley ,
Congress has granted the Executive Branch the "plenary authority to conduct routine searches ... at the border, without probable cause or a warrant, in order to regulate the collection of duties and to prevent the introduction of contraband into this country." Montoya de Hernandez ,
Given the government's heightened interest, the Supreme Court has held, for example, that at the border mail may be opened without a warrant, vehicles may be stopped without individualized suspicion, and boats may be boarded "with no suspicion whatever."
*1315Montoya de Hernandez ,
But the government's authority at the border is not without limits. In Montoya de Hernandez , for example, the Supreme Court held that the prolonged detention of a woman who was suspected of smuggling narcotics within her alimentary canal was "beyond the scope of a routine customs search" and thus required some level of suspicion. Montoya de Hernandez ,
Neither the Supreme Court nor any federal circuit court has determined the level of suspicion required to justify the forensic search of a cell phone at the border.
As the Supreme Court made clear in Riley , cell phones are fundamentally different from any object traditionally subject to government search at the border. See
Before cell phones, border searches were limited by "physical realities" that ensured any search would impose a relatively narrow intrusion on privacy. See
*1316See id . When it comes to cell phone searches, though, these "physical realities" no longer exist.
Beyond these quantitative differences, the data cell phones contain is "also qualitatively different" from the information gleaned by searching luggage, living quarters, and even an individual's person.
The Supreme Court recognized in Riley that given the vast amounts of personal information contained on a cell phone, a cell phone search "typically expose[s] to the government far more than the most exhaustive search of a house," which has historically received the Fourth Amendment's most stringent protections.
Although the government's interest at the border is undoubtedly greater than it was in searching the arrestees in Riley , Vergara's privacy interests are greater here, too. In Riley , the officers searched the arrestees' cell phones by viewing videos, reading text messages, and scrolling call logs. Here, Vergara's cell phones were forensically searched. Although the record does not reveal what that examination entailed, generally, forensic searches are "experts' work," performed "by a trained analyst at a government forensics laboratory." Orin S. Kerr, Searches and Seizures in a Digital World ,
Of course, the border search exception to the warrant requirement "rests not only on the heightened government interests ... but also on [travelers'] reduced privacy interests" at the border. Riley ,
*1317Applying the Supreme Court's reasoning in Riley , the rationales underlying the border search exception lose force when applied to forensic cell phone searches. The border search exception is rooted in the government's interest in controlling "who and what may enter the country." Ramsey ,
To be sure, forensically searching a cell phone may lead to the discovery of physical contraband. A drug smuggler's deleted text messages, for example, may reveal the location of drugs inside the border. But this general law enforcement justification is quite far removed from the purpose originally underlying the border search exception: "protecting this Nation from entrants who may bring anything harmful into this country."
The government argues that requiring probable cause and a warrant before conducting a forensic search would allow "terrorists, spies, [and] smugglers" to cross the border knowing their "devices will be immune from random, unpredictable, and suspicionless searches." Appellee's Br. at 26. Certainly, cell phones may contain information about past, present, and future criminal activity. But obtaining a warrant before extracting data from a cell phone is "not merely an inconvenience to be ... weighed against the claims of police efficiency"; instead, it is a process essential to the "machinery of our government." Riley ,
Relative to the importance of the warrant requirement in protecting individual privacy in the type of information a forensic search can reveal-the government's burden in seeking a warrant is minimal. Indeed, the same technological advances that have enabled "smart" cellular devices have made the process of obtaining a warrant more efficient. The Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure allow judges to issue warrants "by reliable electronic means." Fed. R. Crim. P. 4.1(b)(6)(C). As the Supreme Court noted in Riley , in some jurisdictions officers can e-mail warrant requests to judges and receive responses in fewer than 15 minutes.
Forensic searches are themselves an involved process, making the added burden on the government of seeking a warrant slight. In general, forensic examinations require "analysts [to] sift through the mountain of data in a hard drive and locate specific types or pieces of data." Kerr, Searches and Seizures in a Digital World , supra page 9, at 538. This process involves *1318"a range of software programs to aid the search, [and] can take many days or even weeks to complete." Id. In this case, Agent Botterbusch had to transport Vergara's phones to her office where special forensic agents had to conduct the forensic search. Requiring border officers to seek a warrant before beginning a forensic search, then, would add relatively little time to an already time-intensive process.
I disagree with the majority that Riley is irrelevant to the forensic searches of Vergara's cell phones because the Supreme Court "expressly limited its holding to the search-incident-to-arrest exception." Maj. Op. at 1311. The majority relies on the Supreme Court's statement that "other case-specific exceptions may still justify a warrantless search of a particular phone." Riley ,
I acknowledge, of course, that because Riley concerned a distinct exception to the warrant requirement, it does not compel the outcome I advocate here. The Supreme Court clarified that it was not holding "that the information on a cell phone is immune from search."
I note finally that, as the first federal circuit court to determine whether a warrant is required to conduct a forensic search of a cell phone at the border post- Riley , the majority's decision likely will have a profound impact on law enforcement practices at our ports of entry and on the individuals subjected to those practices. Last year, customs officers searched more than 30,000 cell phones or other electronic devices of people entering and leaving the United States-nearly a 60 percent increase over the previous year.
All citations in the form "Doc. #" refer to the district court docket entries.
In United States v. Cotterman ,
As the majority notes, because the evidence leading to Vergara's conviction stemmed only from the forensic search, we need not consider the level of suspicion required to support the initial, manual search of the cell phones.
At the time Riley was decided, the "top-selling smart phone" had a standard capacity of 16 gigabytes-the equivalent of millions of physical pages of text. Riley ,
CBP Releases Updated Border Search of Electronic Device Directive and FY17 Statistics , U.S. Customs and Border Protection (Jan. 5, 2018), https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/national-media-release/cbp-releases-updated-border-search-electronic-device-directive-and.
Pew Research Center, Mobile Fact Sheet (Feb. 5, 2018), http://www.pewinternet.org/fact-sheet/mobile/.
