A Cellphone Is Not a Suitcase

Last year, an Atlanta activist, Samuel Tunick, caught a felony charge for something that Americans are free to do anytime: He wiped the data from his phone. The only problem was that he did it by providing a federal agent in an airport with a “duress password” that, rather than unlock the device so the agent could search it, deleted its contents. Federal prosecutors have charged Tunick with destruction of evidence. He was detained at the Atlanta airport in January 2025, after returning from a…