With the summer travel and vacation season coming up I thought I'd post a travel reminder

Upon re-entering the United States (including from Canada or Mexico):

• All electronic devices (thumbdrives, ipods, CD/DVD, laptops, phones, PDAs, cameras, etc.) you may have on your person (personal or business), in your carry-on, or in checked baggage are subject to inspection with or without cause.
   
• You may be required to divulge any passwords or codes necessary to access any electronic data, including individual data files, locate on these devices. Refusal to do so will probably result in your detainment (arrest by any other name), and potential charges may be filed. The minimum charges are usually obstruction of a law enforcement official.
  
  
• Items may be removed from your person and all data duplicated. Hard drives may be removed from laptops and cloned. You may or may not be informed this has been done. Also your consent is not required, nor is the US government or customs service liable for any damage or loss of data caused by this process.
   
• Please also note that US Border patrol agents have this authority anywhere inside the United States if you are within 100 miles of the US Border. Several cases have gone to court contesting this based upon 4th amendment ground (right to not be subject to unreasonable search and seizure). None have been successful to date. This issue was also debated in Congress again July 25, 2008 by the Senate Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on the Constitution, chaired by Sen. Russell Feingold. The Justice Department succeeded in getting the issue tabled at that time under ‘national security interests’.

Upon entering any foreign country:

• Any of the same provisions above also apply except for the last item.

By the way (just a side note) this constitution-free zone encompasses almost 2/3 of the population of the United States. For those who care about our civil liberties, if you want more information go here.