Change Watch: Bush's Search Policy For Travelers Is Kept

Obama Officials Say Oversight Will Grow

"Under the policy begun by Bush and now continued by Obama, the government can open your laptop and read your medical records, financial records, e-mails, work product and personal correspondence -- all without any suspicion of illegal activity." -- Elizabeth Goitein, liberty and national security project, Brennan Center for Justice.

The Obama administration will largely preserve Bush-era procedures allowing the government to search -- without suspicion of wrongdoing -- the contents of a traveler's laptop computer, cellphone or other electronic device, although officials said new policies would expand oversight of such inspections.

The rest of the story: Bush's Search Policy For Travelers Is Kept by Ellen Nakashima (Washington Post 2009-08-29)