An airport search, a wiped phone and a potential test of Fourth Amendment protections | CNN Politics

In a small room at the Atlanta International Airport, without a warrant and ignoring his protest and requests for his attorney, a left-wing activist and US citizen says Border Patrol officers started to search his devices, luggage and diary. Sam Tunick, involved in the Stop Cop City movement, which opposed an 85-acre law enforcement training center in Georgia that opened in April 2025, was returning from a vacation in the Dominican Republic in January of that year when Border Patrol officers, coordinating with the FBI, pulled him aside, according to his lawyers. After refusing to answer questions, the officers began searching Tunick and the items eventually asking for access to his phone, Tunick and the prosecutors say. According to prosecutors, Tunick then gave officers a passcode that wiped the contents of the device. Tunick was charged that November with a single count of destroying property to prevent seizure. He has pleaded not guilty and has not been charged with any additional crimes. Experts told CNN the case could be a toehold to challenge how Fourth Amendment protections, which generally prohibit search and seizures without probable cause, are weakened at the US border an