[treffner]

I guess this doesn't apply if you have more than a certain amount of "effects".

Amendment IV

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, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

[outofstyle]

Amendment IV 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, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Dinshihead, an unemployed American citizen, is flying in from Amsterdam and says he has $18,000 cash. They check his bags and find a huge amount of additional undeclared cash and he is held pending an investigation. You think his rights have been violated?

[DBrow]

When you come into the USA, there is a customs declaration form that must be filled out.

The form clearly says that certain amounts of cash- $10,000 or more- must be declared. It's the law donchano. If you don't declare the cash you commit a crime, and they make sure you are informed of that before you get the choice of red line- blue line.

So he chooses to break the law and tried to smuggle in the undeclared cash- dogs sniffed him out (probable cause) and the customs guys investigated. Based on similar cases, he probably was offered the chance to voluntarily open the suitcase, speeding up the warrant process by about two hours or even less.

The stuff on his laptop was thrown in to add spice. If it's not classified a citizen can have any information desired. The only cases where that does not apply is where the information holder gives certain stuff (bombs and meth recipes and a few other things) to someone who is likely to commit a crime (then you become an accessory).

[sgtyork]

The ability of customs to search people at the border has never been considered an unreasonable search.

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Few exceptions to the presumptive warrant and probable cause requirements are more firmly rooted than the “border search” exception. Pursuant to the right of the United States to protect itself by stopping and examining persons and property crossing into the country, routine border searches are reasonable simply by virtue of the fact that they occur at the border.

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/homesec/RL31826.pdf