A federal judge ruled Thursday that US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents violated the Fourth Amendment rights of Osama Abu Irshaid, the executive director of American Muslims for Palestine, when they searched his cell phones twice at a US international airport in 2024. The court did not find, however, that the searches amounted to retaliation in violation of the First Amendment.

US District Judge Michael Nachmanoff of the Eastern District of Virginia issued the ruling following a bench trial held in May. Dr. Irshaid, a US citizen, sued the government after CBP officers subjected his phones to forensic searches upon his return to the country in 2024. At the time, Irshaid was carrying two cell phones and offered one of his phones for officers to search. One of the CBP officers at the scene remarked that “people who are traveling with burner phones are trying to hide something.”

The court found that among the factors CBP Officer Scott Cowles cited in requesting approval for the forensic search was a May 2024 letter from Congressman James Comer of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability. The letter alleged misconduct by Irshaid’s organization as well as financial ties to Hamas.

The court found that the letter, along with the other information Cowles relied on, did not amount to the reasonable suspicion required to justify a non-routine forensic search of a US citizen’s phone. Judge Nachmanoff wrote that the evidence connecting Irshaid to any national security concern was too attenuated to justify the searches.

On the First Amendment retaliation claim, however, Judge Nachmanoff ruled in the government’s favor. He held that although the searches were constitutionally unreasonable, the evidence did not establish that the CBP officers harbored any “retaliatory animus” toward Irshaid’s pro-Palestinian advocacy. The court found the officers had acted on “well-intentioned independent misjudgment” rather than hostility to protected speech.

The court ordered both parties to submit a briefing within 21 days on the question of appropriate remedies.