When the plane landed in Syracuse, Roberts was hauled away by FBI agents who interrogated him for four hours about his activities while in-flight. Knowing his rights, Roberts declined to voluntarily surrender his encrypted digital devices. Thus, eventually the agents simply took them.
This is precisely the sort of thing the fourth amendment was written to protect against. It reads, verbatim:
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
The officers who have seized the property will now have to swear to tell the truth at some point — that they believed that Roberts' devices contained evidence of criminal activity. Preservation of evidence is, no matter how one views it, protected by several higher court rulings throughout American history.
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