The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, in United States v. Kolsuz, held that a
forensic search of a cellphone during a border crossing didn't
require a warrant under the Fourth Amendment. In the case, Hamza
Kolsuz, from whom border officers had previously confiscated
unlicensed firearm parts during attempted border crossings, was
detained at Dulles airport when attempting to travel to Turkey. The
officers again seized firearm parts, detained Kolsuz, and manually
searched his iPhone, which was not password protected. The officers
then arrested Kolsuz and took the phone to the Homeland Security
Investigations office, where computer forensic agents attached the
phone to a data extractor and downloaded its contents for later
review. Kolsuz moved to suppress, arguing that the search and
seizure were not covered by the border search exception and that
the more stringent rules pertaining to searches incident to arrest
governed. The district court disagreed, and
