U.S. Customs and Border Protection

[Roland Perry]

In article 
<6ED388AA006C454BA35B0098396B9BFB03EE3A88@uxsrvr20.atlas.ukerna.ac.uk>, 
Andrew Cormack <Andrew.Cormack@ja.net> writes
>And presumably if a customs person at the border insists on having my
>laptop as a condition of entry, I could always change my mind about
>wanting to enter?

By air, I would have thought that such a decision wasn't 
desirable/possible on the grounds that you can't catch a flight back on 
your own without first going landside, and if they are going to have to 
escort you staying airside (and getting a ticket/boarding pass etc) 
that's sufficiently inconvenient for them that they could easily decide 
they were going to search you anyway.

I doubt it would have a happier outcome by train or car.

This is unlikely to be a particularly USA thing.
-- 
Roland Perry