Warrant Exception: Ports of Entry

When persons and items enter the United States from abroad, agents of the executive enjoy expansive authority to conduct searches and seizures without a warrant. The Court has repeatedly chosen to provide relatively little judicial oversight of the executive’s use of that authority, especially when compared to oversight of common domestic policing.

We begin with the Court’s approval of routine searches at the California-Mexico border. No quantum of evidence (or suspicion) is needed.