Final week, lawyer Andrew Lattarulo was on his means dwelling from Aruba when his iPhone 15 Professional Max was seized by Homeland Safety and Border Management brokers at Boston Logan Worldwide Airport. Maybe un-coincidentally, Lattarulo is a widely known immigration within the Boston space — his purchasers embody the daddy of a 4-month outdated whose arrest by ICE drew public scrutiny — and has a preferred social media presence that calls out problematic practices of immigration brokers and is vital of Donald Trump’s insurance policies.
Because of this, he filed a lawsuit alleging violations of his First and Fourth Modification rights. Lattarulo additionally filed an emergency movement looking for a short lived restraining order blocking the search of his cellphone and its return, because it accommodates confidential shopper data, in addition to privileged data between himself and different attorneys. As said within the movement, “The seizure was made eight hours after plaintiff had been inspected by United States Customs and Border Safety at a border crossing. Plaintiff’s cellphone was unlawfully seized and probably searched in violation of plaintiff’s First and Fourth Amendments, and the constitutional rights of his purchasers.”
District of Massachusetts Decide Allison D. Burroughs granted the TRO, barring the federal government from looking the cellphone or analyzing any knowledge which will have already been collected.
Lattarulo’s attorneys, Mary Lemay and Patrick Hanley from Butters Brazilian, stated, “We imagine lawyer Lattarulo was focused as a result of he represents purchasers in immigration-related proceedings, and he has amplified the federal government’s personal enforcement priorities by way of social media to immigrant communities and anybody else who is likely to be .”
“Public criticism of our authorities is protected speech underneath the First Modification. We initiated this go well with to guard not solely lawyer Lattarulo’s constitutional rights, but additionally these of his purchasers.”
However this early success could not translate to final victory. In 2021, Texas immigration lawyer Adam A. Malik had his cellphone seized by border brokers. The Fifth Circuit dominated DHS’s use of a filter group to kind out any privileged supplies was ample to guard Malik’s purchasers, and that the federal government’s asserted connection between the lawyer and an arms vendor created possible trigger even when Malik is appropriate that the connection “seems doubtful in hindsight.”
Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Regulation, host of The Jabot podcast, and co-host of Pondering Like A Lawyer. AtL tipsters are the very best, so please join together with her. Be at liberty to e-mail her with any suggestions, questions, or feedback and comply with her on Twitter @Kathryn1 or Mastodon @[email protected].
