The court ruled that a lower standard applies to manual searches, allowing the government to conduct extraordinarily invasive electronic device searches without any suspicion of wrongdoing, simply because the border officer chooses to search by hand rather than with a forensic tool.
I believe a duress PIN is still a PIN, if they don’t specify which they want, and then they enter it, they’d be hard pressed to actually charge you with obstruction.
I’m not a lawyer but I’ve been told never to give my PIN out.
You’ll almost certainly get charged with “disposing of evidence” or broadly “obstruction” if you give them a duress pin that scrambles your phone. Maybe get smacked around a bit because you injured their authority over you.
The one time cops tried to search my phone (local police not border patrol) I wouldn’t give my pin. They eventually gave it back but they wiped my phone.
This ruling doesn’t get into that question. Based on how courts treat refusing to take a breathalyzer, I’m guessing it opens you up to being detained for 24 hours on suspicion of a crime, giving them time to obtain a warrant. A different write-up says that if you do not give a password, they can detain your device and make you wait; but you are not required to give up the password. No other write-ups I can find mention the password issue.
I know previous rulings have said that Face Unlock does NOT count as forcing your password and is allowed by police in searches. When I go on international trips, I disable Face Unlock on my work phone before going to the airports to block that pathway since my phone contains company proprietary information and Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI). I have nothing embarrassing or illegal or incriminating on my personal phone, so I usually don’t bother.
Oke, but am I required to give my password? Also is it “illegal” to give a duress pin if asked?
There’s an ongoing case about duress pin use
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jul/23/cop-city-protester-phone
I believe a duress PIN is still a PIN, if they don’t specify which they want, and then they enter it, they’d be hard pressed to actually charge you with obstruction.
I’m not a lawyer but I’ve been told never to give my PIN out.
You’ll almost certainly get charged with “disposing of evidence” or broadly “obstruction” if you give them a duress pin that scrambles your phone. Maybe get smacked around a bit because you injured their authority over you.
Eh I heal. So far.
The one time cops tried to search my phone (local police not border patrol) I wouldn’t give my pin. They eventually gave it back but they wiped my phone.
This ruling doesn’t get into that question. Based on how courts treat refusing to take a breathalyzer, I’m guessing it opens you up to being detained for 24 hours on suspicion of a crime, giving them time to obtain a warrant. A different write-up says that if you do not give a password, they can detain your device and make you wait; but you are not required to give up the password. No other write-ups I can find mention the password issue.
I know previous rulings have said that Face Unlock does NOT count as forcing your password and is allowed by police in searches. When I go on international trips, I disable Face Unlock on my work phone before going to the airports to block that pathway since my phone contains company proprietary information and Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI). I have nothing embarrassing or illegal or incriminating on my personal phone, so I usually don’t bother.
Same for fingerprint unlock