Speech and Surveillance at the Border
The U.S. government has historically enjoyed special investigative and enforcement powers at its borders. In recent years, these powers have been invoked to justify, among many other things, sweeping surveillance of international communications, suspicionless searches of travelers' laptops and cellphones, inspection of travelers' social media accounts, and "extreme vetting" of travelers' political and religious views.
Jameel Jaffer, Founding Director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, will discuss the effect of the U.S. border policy on the First Amendment freedoms, and the role that we should expect the First Amendment to play in limiting government power in this context. Until very recently, Jaffer served as ACLU’s Deputy Legal Director, overseeing cases on free speech, privacy, technology, national security, and international human rights, and co-authored the ACLU publications about the U.S. administrations’ “torture memos” and “drone memos.”