Originally Posted by
longing4piedmont
<deleted by moderator>. Suggest you try what you are suggesting here and see how it turns out for you....
The courts that have ruled on the legality of CBP searches all analyze the cases through the prism of 4th Amendment prohibition of unreasonable searches. For example, you could read the 9th Circuit's ruling in US v. Cotterman.
If the constituion didn't appky and CBP officers could do anything they wanted, that decision would have been about one sentence long.
I have personally been in airport secondary inspection seven times. I have refused ti answer questions on 5 of those occasions. Yes, the officers may raise their voices and make threats, but they can't make you answer, and as a US citizen they have to let you enter whether you answer or not. I've never been held for more than three hours, notwithstanding their claims of "You have to answer" and "We'll keep you here until you answer."
If every US citizen simply refused to answer CBP questions, they'd stop asking us these questions pretty quickly because they don't have the time or resources to send everyone to secondary to try to sweat us out.