A WikiLeaks supporter and friend of accused leaker Bradley Manning filed a federal lawsuit Friday accusing U.S. border officials of violating his rights by seizing his laptop without a warrant as he re-entered the country from a vacation in Mexico last year.

David Maurice House is one of several Boston-area friends of Manning who were interviewed by federal agents following Manning’s May 2010 arrest. House is also a founding member of the Bradley Manning Support Network, where he sits on the steering committee and does fundraising. He was a frequent visitor of the imprisoned Army private until early March.

The lawsuit, filed by the ACLU of Massachusetts, concerns a November 2010 incident in which House was met by U.S. customs agents as he deplaned at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport. The agents searched House’s bags, then took him to a detention room and questioned him “for an extended period,” according to the lawsuit.

The suit says:

They questioned Plaintiff regarding his association with Bradley Manning, his work for the Support Network, whether he had any connections to WikiLeaks, and whether he had been in contact with anyone from WikiLeaks during his trip to Mexico. Plaintiff was asked no questions relating to border control, customs, trade, immigration, or terrorism, and at no point did agents suggest that plaintiff had broken the law or that his computer contained any illegal material. Plaintiff answered their questions truthfully and to the best of his ability.

When House was released, the agents confiscated his laptop computer, a thumb drive and a digital camera. DHS held onto to equipment for 49 days, finally returning it only when the ACLU sent them a strongly worded letter on House’s behalf.

Under the “border search exception” of United States criminal law, international travelers can be searched without a warrant as they enter the U.S. Under the Barack Obama administration, law enforcement agents have aggressively used this power to search travelers’ laptops, sometimes copying the hard drive before returning the computer to its owner. Courts have ruled that such laptop searches can take place even in the absence of any reasonable suspicion of wrongdoing.

In House’s case, the ACLU says the warrantless seizure and presumed search of House’s data is particularly troubling. House, according to the lawsuit, was targeted solely for his work with the Bradley Manning Support Network, and the seized laptop contained:

information concerning the Support Network including the complete Support Network mailing list, confidential communications between members of the Steering Committee about strategy and fund-raising activities, the identity of donors, lists of potential donors and their ability to contribute, and notes on meetings with donors including personal observations about those donors.

The incident has scared some potential donors away from supporting the group, according to the lawsuit. The Support Network has raised more than $100,000 for Manning’s court martial defense.

The lawsuit asks a federal judge to declare the search an unconstitutional violation of House’s First Amendment rights of speech and political association, and Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable search and seizure, and to order the government to destroy its copy of House’s computer files.

No other members of the Support Network have reported similar treatment, but WikiLeaks’ U.S. representative, Jacob Appelbaum, is still being singled out for search and interrogation every time he re-enters the country from a trip abroad.

House Complaint

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