Supreme Court asked to decide when travelers' phones, laptops may be searched at border

WASHINGTON – Diane Zorri was about to get her passport stamped at Miami International Airport when a customs agent approached with an ominous declaration.

"He said, 'hey, we've been waiting for you,'" Zorri recalled of the 2017 incident, in which she was led into a small room for questioning after returning to the United States from a vacation in Italy. "The first thing that rushes through my mind is 'was my family murdered while I was on the plane and they're here to tell me about it?' I was horrified."

Zorri’s family was fine, but U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents demanded that the Florida professor and former Air Force captain unlock and hand over her iPhone and MacBook laptop. The officers kept the devices for nearly an hour as others questioned Zorri. They then returned them – and let her go – without explanation.