Seljan

OPINION AND ORDER DENYING DEFENDANT’S MOTION TO SUPPRESS

I.

INTRODUCTION

International border search jurisprudence pertains to the lawfulness of searches conducted at, near, and distant from real borders. Defendant’s motion draws into issue “exit” searches of items leaving the United States via aircraft, namely, whether Customs’ searches of defendant’s international Federal Express (“FedEx”) document-sized packages which he sent from California to the Phillippines violated Fourth Amendment principles. Under the border search exception to the Fourth Amendment, such a search does not require any warrant, probable cause, or reasonable suspicion. The Court concludes that each of the three searches took place at the functional equivalent of the international border.

Although each package was intercepted during currency interdiction operations by United States Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (“BICE” or “Customs”) agents operating at the FedEx sorting facility based at the Oakland International Airport, these packages did not yield evidence of prohibited monetary transactions. Instead, inspectors found evidence of pedophilia-related offenses.

The evidence adduced at…