Winooski School District superintendent Wilmer Chavarria has filed a lawsuit related to his detention at a Texas airport in July, arguing that the U.S. Department of Homeland Security violated his Fourth Amendment rights when border agents searched his electronic devices without a warrant on his wa y home from a trip abroad. Chavarria is being represented by the Pacific Legal Foundation, a high-profile public interest law firm with conservative and libertarian leanings. The national firm specializes in government overreach and has won 18 of the 20 cases it has argued in front of the U.S. Supreme Court. The suit, filed on December 10 in federal court, challenges a 2018 U.S. Customs and Border Protection directive which authorizes warrantless searches of electronic devices at the U.S border. The directive allows federal agents to conduct a “basic search” of electronic devices “with or without suspicion” and an “advanced search” — in which agents can review, copy and analyze digital contents — when there is “reasonable suspicion” of laws being broken or a national security concern. The suit also names U.S. Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement as defendants. It was filed the day after Chavarria testified at a Congressional forum in Washington, D.C., along with four other U.S. citizens who had been detained by agents of the Department of Homeland Security. Since 2015, the Pacific Legal Foundation wrote in a blog post, the number of warrantless searches at the border has more than quadrupled, reaching more than 46,000 in 2024. A separate 2009 directive issued by ICE also allows warrantless searches of electronic devices at the border as long as the searches are conducted by “ICE Special Agents.” Wilmer Chavarria with his mother in Nicaragua. Credit: Courtesy The suit, first reported by VTDigger, stems from a July 21 incident in which Chavarria was detained by federal agents at the George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston as he was traveling home to Vermont after visiting his mother in Nicaragua. Chavarria, a U.S. citizen since 2018, was taken to an isolated screening area and pressured to hand over his laptop, smartphone and tablet, and to provide his passwords, according to the lawsuit. After several hours of “isolation, physical discomfort, threats and badgering,” Chavarria handed over his devices and passwords, the suit continues. The devices were searched in a separate area, so Chavarria still does not know what data was viewed or exported. “CBP’s and ICE’s policies … threaten Wilmer Chavarria with unreasonable, warrantless searches or seizures whenever he travels internationally,” the lawsuit states. It asks for a judgment declaring the policies unconstitutional and unlawful and an injunction prohibiting the defendants from performing warrantless searches of Chavarria’s electronic devices. Pacific Legal Foundation is representing Chavarria free of charge. In an interview on Monday, Chavarria said that the organization was one of many offering him legal counsel in the weeks after his detention. He said he initially wasn’t interested in pursuing litigation but ultimately decided to work with Pacific Legal after looking at its track record and consulting with lawyer friends and other trusted organizations. Since its founding in 1973, the firm has consistently stood up for property rights, including unreasonable government searches and seizures, Chavarria said. Working with a more conservative firm, he said, was a way to show the suit isn’t a political stunt. “I don’t necessarily agree with all the cases they take up,” Chavarria said, “but I agree with the way they framed my case.” Chavarria said he’s not expecting any financial compensation from the lawsuit but is pursuing it because of the implications it could have for all Americans. “I’m not going to waste an opportunity to have a greater impact,” he said. “We want them to declare these policies unconstitutional so that every American can feel safe to have electronic devices on them.” The Pacific Legal Foundation has an “effective reputation” targeting government overreach, said Jared Carter, a professor at the Vermont Law and Graduate School. Carter said he was pleased to see a legal organization take on a client who it ostensibly doesn’t align with politically in order to pursue a lawsuit of “significant constitutional import.” While cases that argue for constitutional rights at the U.S. border are challenging to win given the lack of precedent, Carter said, he believes it’s “entirely possible” that Chavarria’s lawsuit could end up before the U.S. Supreme Court, though it likely has a long road ahead. Read the full lawsuit below: The post Winooski Superintendent Files Lawsuit Over Airport Search of Devices appeared first on Seven Days. ...read more read less