Can CBP Search A Passenger Cabin Aboard a Cruise Ship Without Suspicion of Criminal Activity?

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The Fourth Amendment protects "[t]he right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures." U.S. Const. amend. IV. Whether a search is reasonable will depend upon its nature and all of the circumstances surrounding it, United States v. Montoya de Hernandez, 473 U.S. 531, 537, 105 S.Ct. 3304, 87 L.Ed.2d 381 (1985), but, as a general matter, warrantless searches are unreasonable. See Cody v. Dombrowski, 413 U.S. 433, 439, 93 S.Ct. 2523, 37 L.Ed.2d 706 (1973).
Searches conducted at the nation's borders, however, represent a well-established and long-standing exception to the warrant requirement. United States v. Ramsey, 431 U.S. 606, 619, 97 S.Ct. 1972, 52 L.Ed.2d 617 (1977); see also United States v. Flores-Montano, 541 U.S. 149, 152-53, 124 S.Ct. 1582, 158 L.Ed.2d 311 (2004). The exception applies not only at the physical boundaries of the United States, but also at the "the functional equivalent" of a border, Almeida-Sanchez v. United States, 413 U.S. 266, 272-73, 93 S.Ct. 2535, 37 L.Ed.2d 596 (1973), including the first port where a ship docks after arriving from a foreign country, United States v. Smith, 273 F.3d 629, 633 n. 8 (5th Cir. 2001). The search here, conducted as the Adventure of the Seas arrived in St. Thomas from St. Maarten, was therefore a border search.
In the case most clearly on point, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit concluded that "the search of private living quarters on a ship should require something more than naked suspicion." United States v. Alfonso, 759 F.2d 728, 738 (9th Cir. 1985).
As a passenger of a cruise liner, Whitted had a reasonable expectation of privacy in his cabin: he excluded others from it, used it as his home, and slept and conducted his daily life therein.
Mindful of the "centuries-old principle of respect for the privacy of the home," we, therefore, consider a search of a individual's living quarters among the most intrusive of searches — invading as it does a place where the individual expects not to be disturbed. Wilson v. Layne, 526 U.S. 603, 610, 119 S.Ct. 1692, 143 L.Ed.2d 818 (1999); see also Georgia v. Randolph, 547 U.S. 103, 115, 126 S.Ct. 1515, 164 L.Ed.2d 208 (2006); United States v. United States Dist. Court for Eastern Dist. of Mick, 407 U.S. 297, 313, 92 S.Ct. 2125, 32 L.Ed.2d 752 (1972) ("[P]hysical entry of the home is the chief evil against wh

Anton Vialtsin, Esq.
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