Left-wing Twitch streamer Hasan Piker was detained and interrogated at Chicago O’Hare airport on Sunday after returning from a trip to Paris. Many have taken the incident as a dire indication of the “constitutional and civil liberties–related perils” that the Trump administration poses.
What’s been most surprising about the Department of Homeland Security’s detention of Piker is that, despite its concerning implications, it was perfectly legal. As Ken Klippenstein lays out here:
Though the Fourth Amendment protects against unreasonable search and seizure, the Supreme Court has recognized a so-called border search exception. This authority applies to anyone located within 100 miles of a land border or coastline — the “border zone” — which incidentally covers over two-thirds of the US population.
The border search exception has a long legal history, though some of its details — like whether or not an electronic device can be searched at the border without suspicion of criminal wrongdoing — have only been debated in the last decade. But one does not need to go to the border to find a shredding of the Bill of Rights. The Fourth Amendment, which protects people from “unreasonable searches and seizures,” has effectively been optional for four decades.
The invalidation of the Fourth Amendment arguably started in 1970 with the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act. Law professor G. Robert Blakey, who formulated the basics of RICO for the Senate Judiciary Committee, was searching for new tools to combat organized crime — tools that would allow authorities to seize not just illicit profits but all assets associated with illegal activity. RICO did just that: once someone was proven guilty of a crime, all assets associated with the illegal behavior could be seized.
For Senator Joe Biden, RICO didn’t go far enough. For one, real estate was still excluded from seizure, and police couldn’t seize…
Auteur: Benjamin Y. Fong
