Fifth Circuit: Law enforcement doesn’t need warrants to search phones at border
What I don't  understand, and perhaps I'm trying to apply logic to things that are outside of it :<p>The ostensible reason the border officers have these powers is to protect the country. We don't want undesirable types allowed in (let's defer the fun of defining the undesirable types:).<p>But... This feels like "real time process". You let somebody in or you don't.  How does confiscating the phone and keeping it for <i>five months</i> aid in this? Is the assumption that any evil deed would take 6 months to execute? And that if we discovered something bad on the phone, five months later we'd have an easy time catching the owner?<p>Basically,in which twilight universe is searching a phone off line for months part of border security prerogatives?? Is it not obvious to everybody involved that this search is for purposes, good bad or ugly, other than border protection? How is this not even addressed in any of these articles or rulings?