Originally Posted by PTravel
As you note, I think we are talking past each other.
I've never questioned the constitutionality of border searches. I was focused, solely, on the prohibition against importation of "immoral" material in the statute. Any Customs agent who seized, for example, the copy of Catcher in the Rye that I bought overseas on the grounds that it was immoral would, in my opinion, have committed a First Amendment violation, at least, and probably a Fifth Amendment violation as well (it's not "due process of law" if the standard applied is, itself, illegal).
I did notice in that US Code Title 19, 1305 that there is this provision...
"Provided further, That the Secretary of the Treasury may, in his discretion, admit the so-called classics or books of recognized and established literary or scientific merit, but may, in his discretion, admit such classics or books only when imported for noncommercial purposes:"