I don't blog about criminal cases often, but this one was interesting.
Is a crewman's stateroom his castle?
Or, more specifically, is a stateroom enough like a home that the Fourth Amendment should require heightened suspicion before permitting a warrantless border search?
New case from the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals regarding the scope of a border search on a foreign vessel entering a U.S. port. The case is USA v. Alfaro-Moncada and can be found here.
As the court succinctly asked: When a foreign cargo vessel enters this country and is subject to a border search, may the cabins of its crew members be searched for contraband without reasonable suspicion?
A crewman on a foreign ship paying a port call in Miami was found in possession of child pornography. Customs agricultural inspectors were searching the vessel stem to stern when they came upon a locked door leading to a stateroom. The ship's cook was the occupant. In his room, the agents found several suspicious DVD's which turned out to be child pornography.
He was convicted and an appeal was taken. On appeal, the Eleventh Circuit had to determine if the breadth of law enforcement agent's authority to conduct border searches extended to the search conducted in this case.
The court went to great lengths to discuss the array of threats posed by foreign trade/commerce. Interestingly, the court cites repeatedly to the Department of Homeland Security's website and even GAO reports on the national security threats facing the United States.
Not surprisingly, the court found that a stateroom isn't entitled to a heightened requirement for suspicion before law enforcement agents can conduct a warrantless border search.
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