Have laptop? You're under suspicion!

Innocent until proven guilty has been one of the assumed rights of our Constitution, affirmed repeatedly by the Supreme Court, and popularly enshrined as a pillar of our national liberty.

Federal agents may take a traveler's laptop computer or other electronic device to an off-site location for an unspecified period of time without any suspicion of wrongdoing, as part of border search policies the Department of Homeland Security recently disclosed.

Also, officials may share copies of the laptop's contents with other agencies and private entities for language translation, data decryption or other reasons, according to the policies, dated July 16 and issued by two DHS agencies, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

"The policies . . . are truly alarming," said Sen. Russell Feingold (D-Wis.), who is probing the government's border search practices. He said he intends to introduce legislation soon that would require reasonable suspicion for border searches, as well as prohibit profiling on race, religion or national origin

This policy may seem merely an inconvenience but it brings a real danger to privacy, a real threat of identity theft, and a potential source of self-incrimination (inconveniently proscribed by the Fifth Amendment). It's a slippery slope we're on.