You're right...kinda
I agree about the meatheads in customs, however in regards to the US Constitution protecting those crossing the border, it gets more complicated than you made it out to be. There is a border search exemption to the fourth amendment which removes the requirement for a warrant. What the exemption does NOT do is completely remove the protection from unreasonable searches, and routine and non-routine do not seem to be direct equivalents to reasonable and unreasonable.
If the US did not have such a right leaning Supreme Court, I would say that we would eventually come to the position that computer files are like private correspondence and that a non-routine search would be unreasonable, as the possibility of finding contraband in a computer file is much less likely than finding contraband in a letter or package. Unfortunately our current Supreme Court is unlikely to split from Rehnquist, who issued an opinion stating that the entry into the country makes searches reasonable. Stephens dissented, of course.
http://supreme.justia.com/us/431/606/
On the other hand, he did not seem to disagree with the guidelines which prohibit the reading of private correspondence, but I'm certain that Scalia, Roberts, Alito, and Thomas will ignore that particular point.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
