Revealed: DHS Strategy to Seize Digital Information at BorderJoe Wright The documents were released after a long ongoing court battle that House initiated against the U.S. government with help from the American Civil Liberties Union. The documents reveal a troubling amount of surveillance and planning to ensure that Houses personal effects and information would be seized without judicial approval and without being charged with any criminal activity. In a classic case of guilt by association, David House wound up on a government watch list after befriending Manning and later starting theBradley Manning Support Networkfollowing Mannings arrest. Very few people are aware that in a country supposedly protected by a Constitution enumerating liberties such as freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures, there exists a 100-mile-wide ring around the entire nation that the ACLU has called a Constitution-free Zone. It is here that government has tried hardest to test the limits of its authority. Americans have long come to accept that when encountering a foreign border in their travels, it is OK for agents to physically and electronically examine ones baggage and other personal effects; we have been well trained that we are all guilty until proven innocent by the State until permitted to proceed. As ArsTechnica previously reported, if a laptop or other digital device is part of your personal effects, DHS has attempted to assert that not only should the device be superficially examined, but any files on that device could also be examined. This not only crushes the 4th Amendment, but potentially the First as well: Full clarification of reasonable suspicion hasnt been forthcoming. The office that cares so much about your civil liberties and privacy has offered only an executive summary so far, but the full report is off limits. David Houses ongoing battle has now forced the government to reveal some of their methods, as well as the tenuous assertion of what constitutes reasonable suspicion. Once flagged as a possible risk to national security for possibly carrying classified documents, House was entered into the TECS system. The U.S. government and INTERPOL can add information about a range of suspected activities that can trigger a red flag while traveling and returning to the United States. According to the documents that were released, House mysteriously wound up in the TECS system at precisely the same time he was visiting Manning in prison and organizing his advocacy platform. Investigators laid in wait for months for House to leave the country and return, presumably because they would have had to go through proper legal channels to seize his property otherwise. As he was returning from Mexico, he was detained, had his electronic devices seized, and was never charged or told whether or not his property would be returned. This is eerily similar to what recently happened in England to Glenn Greenwalds partner David Miranda. In Houses case, all of his files were copied, as well as all keystrokes made on his laptop. His items may never have been returned, but after 7 weeks House contacted immigration and customs to request his items and did receive them the very next day. Its worth noting that a federal appeals court has officially disagreed by a vote of 8-3 with the vague assertions of the DHS Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties. Their ruling makes clear that there should be reasonable suspicion; a ruling by the full 9th Circuit that overturned a previous ruling by a three judge panel: The 9th Circuit U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at least has stated that they will not permit the government to examine and confiscate the files of Americans presumed to be innocent. Reasonable suspicion must be established. However, the Washington Times also notes that reasonable suspicion is a lower standard than probable cause which would require a search warrant before data can be examined and retained. Nevertheless, the court has ruled that password-protected files are exactly what the Constitutions framers had in mind when they wrote the Fourth Amendment protecting Americans papers from unreasonable searches. Nevertheless, DHS continues to offer up hot-button topics like national security, drug trafficking and child porn as the catch-all to help their end-run around the Constitution, as well as employ the no-mans land of the 100-mile wide border. For those who might be in favor of a loose interpretation, it is important to keep in mind that when a complete set of ones digital files are seized, it is not only the suspect that is open to scrutiny; it is everyone who ever has communicated with that individual. This creates a troubling dragnet that violates anyone in its path, as House concludes: As we have learned time and again: this government will continue reaching in the most invasive manner possible; it is up to each of us to force transparency and ensure that our Constitution is preserved across the entire country with consistent standards, not only where the government authorizes our freedom. Source, Associated Press: Read the full documents of House vs. Napolitano Here: Read more from Joe Wright Here 