FOR PUBLICATION

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALSFOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT

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NITED

TATES OF

MERICA

,No. 06-50581

Plaintiff-Appellant,

D.C. No.v.

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CR-05-00772-DDPM

ICHAEL

IMOTHY

RNOLD

,OPINION

Defendant-Appellee.

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Appeal from the United States District Courtfor the Central District of CaliforniaDean D. Pregerson, District Judge, PresidingArgued and SubmittedOctober 18, 2007—Pasadena, CaliforniaFiled April 21, 2008Before: Diarmuid F. O’Scannlain and Milan D. Smith, Jr.,Circuit Judges, and Michael W. Mosman,* District Judge.Opinion by Judge O’Scannlain

*The Honorable Michael W. Mosman, United States District Judge forthe District of Oregon, sitting by designation.

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COUNSEL

Steve Kim, Assistant United States Attorney, CriminalAppeals Section, Los Angeles, California, argued the causefor the plaintiff-appellant and filed briefs; George S. Cardona,

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v. A

RNOLD

United States Attorney, and Thomas P. O’Brien, AssistantUnited States Attorney, Chief, Criminal Division, Los Ange-les, California, were on the briefs.Marilyn E. Bednarski, Kaye, McLane, & Bednarski, LLP,Pasadena, California, argued the cause for the defendant-appellee and filed a brief; Kevin Lahue, Kaye, McLane, &Bednarski, LLP, Pasadena, California, was on the brief.

OPINION

O’SCANNLAIN, Circuit Judge:We must decide whether customs officers at Los AngelesInternational Airport may examine the electronic contents of a passenger’s laptop computer without reasonable suspicion.IOn July 17, 2005, forty-three-year-old Michael Arnoldarrived at Los Angeles International Airport (“LAX”) after anearly twenty-hour flight from the Philippines. After retriev-ing his luggage from the baggage claim, Arnold proceeded tocustoms. U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (“CBP”) OfficerLaura Peng first saw Arnold while he was in line waiting togo through the checkpoint and selected him for secondaryquestioning. She asked Arnold where he had traveled, the pur-pose of his travel, and the length of his trip. Arnold stated thathe had been on vacation for three weeks visiting friends in thePhilippines.Peng then inspected Arnold’s luggage, which contained hislaptop computer, a separate hard drive, a computer memorystick (also called a flash drive or USB drive), and six compactdiscs. Peng instructed Arnold to turn on the computer so shecould see if it was functioning. While the computer was boot-

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RNOLD