While No One Was Paying Attention ...

... the Security State has greatly expanded its search parameters at U.S. borders.

We all remember this from last summer, right?

U.S. defends laptop searches at the border
Courts have upheld routine checks of Americans’ hard drives at the border. Critics say they’re anything but routine

Is a laptop searchable in the same way as a piece of luggage? The Department of Homeland Security believes it is.

For the past 18 months, immigration officials at border entries have been searching and seizing some citizens’ laptops, cellphones, and BlackBerry devices when they return from international trips.

In some cases, the officers go through the files while the traveler is standing there. In others, they take the device for several hours and download the hard drive’s content. After that, it’s unclear what happens to the data.

The Department of Homeland Security contends these searches and seizures of electronic files are vital to detecting terrorists and child pornographers. It also says it has the constitutional authority to do them without a warrant or probable cause.

Well guess what? Laptops and electronic devices are not just what the DHS considers "open game" for searches without probable cause:

New Border Search Policy Far Broader, New Documents Reveal

The old policy (.pdf) -- largely established in 1986 -- included a heading in bold reading: Customs Officers Should Not Read Personal Correspondence.

The U.S. Customs Service must guard the rights of individuals being inspected to ensure their personal privacy is protected. Therefore, as a general rule, Customs officers should not read personal correspondence […]

The new policy? It doesn't even mention personal letters as a special category.

Instead in the 2008 policy (.pdf), private letters, text message and emails are treated the same as any other information carried on a traveler's person or in his cell phone or in his laptop.

In the course of a border search, and absent individualized suspicion, officers can review and analyze the information transported by any individual attempting to enter, reenter, depart, pass through, or reside in the United States.

Compare that to how the 1986 policy -- as modified in 2000 -- instructs officers how to deal with printed material brought in by a traveler:

The U.S. Customs Service must guard the rights of individuals being inspected to ensure their personal privacy is protected. Therefore, as a general rule, Customs officers should not read personal correspondence […]

As opposed to reading content, Customs officers may glance at documents and papers to see if they appear to be merchandise. […] If, after glance at the documents or papers, the officer reasonably suspects that they relate to any of the categories in section 6.4.1 of this directive (books for sale, sedition, embargo violations, etc.), the officer may read the documents.

By contrast, the new policy allows agents to copy documents or laptops without having to show any probable cause.

That disturbs Shirin Sinnar, an attorney for the Asian Law Caucus, which was prompted to sue for the documents after what they say were dozens of complaints from Muslims and South Asians about intense questioning and searches at the border.

"For more than 20 years, the government implicitly recognized that reading and copying the letters, diaries, and personal papers of travelers without reason would chill Americans' rights to free speech and free expression," said Sinnar. "But now customs officials can probe into the thoughts and lives of ordinary travelers without any suspicion at all."

But DHS spokeswoman Amy Kudwa says it should come as no surprise that the policy changed after 9/11 and that the government decided to use every legal means to prevent another attack.

"The decision to change standards reflects the realities of the post 9/11 environment," Kudwa noting that even under the old policy, officers could glance at material without having individualized suspicion.

The courts have generally sided with the government. Most recently the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found that the border agents didn't need to be say why it wanted to look into a laptop -- dismissing arguments that laptops are more analogous to a person's mind than to a suitcase.

That ruling expanded the so-called border exception to the Fourth Amendment, which allows the government to search a person entering or leaving the country without having to have any cause to do so.

Aah, the ever-convenient rationale of the Security State ...

I. Told. You. So.

What's next - opening/reading your letters before they are properly delivered without probable cause?

Shhhhhhhh ....