Editing Search warrant (section)

====Border search exception====
{{main|Border search exception}}
Under [[Border search exception|The Border Search Exception]] custom and immigration officers are not required to have a warrant or [[probable cause]] to conduct [[Search and seizure|searches and seizures]] at [[Borders of the United States|international borders]] and their functional equivalents.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Coletta|first1=Christine A.|title=Laptop searches at the United States borders and the border search exception to the fourth amendment|journal=Boston College Law Review|date=2007|volume=48|page=971}}</ref>

This doctrine is not actually an exception to the [[Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Fourth Amendment]], but rather to the Amendment's requirement for a warrant or probable cause. Balanced against the sovereign's interests at the border are the Fourth Amendment rights of entrants. Not only is the expectation of privacy less at the border than in the interior, the Fourth Amendment balance between the interests of the Government and the privacy right of the individual is also struck much more favorably to the Government at the border. This balance at international borders means that routine searches are "reasonable" there, and therefore do not violate the [[Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Fourth Amendment]]'s [[proscription]] against "unreasonable searches and seizures".