US Customs digital searches could violate the 4th amendment

From MyCE:

There has been plenty of controversy surrounding the pat-downs and scans that Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officials have been conducting in airports throughout the United States. Now, Customs and Border Protection officers are also coming under fire for searches that are being conducted of travelers’ computers in the interest of “national security.”

While 293 million people entered the United States during the year ending September 30, 2010, only about 3000 American citizens have had electronic devices searched upon their arrival back to the US in the past two years. That is certainly a small fraction of the arrivals, but civil rights lawyers are questioning whether these searches violate citizens’ Fourth Amendment rights protecting them against “unreasonable search and seizure.”