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American Citizen Sues US Border Patrol Over Data Copied From Seized iPhone

August 30, 2018

Naked Security reported on August 28th that an American Muslim citizen is suing the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) for seizing her iPhone at an airport, keeping it for 130 days, failing to explain why, and refusing to destroy whatever copies of her data that they copied, including photos of her when she wasn't wearing a hijab, which she wears as an expression of her Islamic faith.

Rejhane Lazoja, a 39-year-old woman from Staten Island, N.Y., had her phone and its SIM card seized by border patrol agents on February 26th at Newark Liberty International Airport when she returned from a trip to Switzerland.

On August 23rd, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a Muslim civil rights group, announced that its New Jersey chapter had filed a case in federal court challenging the CBP's "warrantless and unconstitutional seizure" of an American citizen's phone.

Lazoja formally asked a federal judge to force border officials to delete data copied from her iPhone 6S Plus – a legal filing that's formally known as a Rule 41(g) Motion, or as a Motion to Return Property.

She got her phone back as noted above, but she specifically wants assurances that copies of her data are deleted. As CAIR points out, Rule 41(g) motions are generally used for tangible items, as opposed to easily copied data. But it's those easily made copies that she wants wiped out: copies that were taken without the CBP explaining its reason for seizure.

One of her attorneys, CAIR's Albert Fox Cahn, said that the phone was seized, and its data imaged, in spite of her never being charged with a crime.

Her attorneys have asked the CBP to return her data, to expunge any copies made of the data, to disclose all third parties who received and/or retain copies, partial or complete, of the data, and to provide information about the basis for the seizure and retention of the property.

Lazoja's motion argues that CBP violated Lazoja's Fourth Amendment rights not only by seizing the phone, but by the length of time the phone was retained and by any copying of her personal data.

There are probably a lot of similar fact scenarios out there as we continue to see acts of questionable constitutionality by the CBP – I am glad to see the filing of this suit in federal court.

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