The XIV amendment says:

"nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."

Which sounds like all people should have the same protection from unlawful searches ... as I'm a conditional law novice can someone briefly outline why this doesn't stand, what removed the protections for "all people" (note the preceding section refers to citizens, so all people is clearly a distinct class).

Is it that the federal nature of the FBI means they are above state law?

This could be a good starting point for research: A 2015 study from the European Parliament - "The US legal system on data protection in the field of law enforcement. Safeguards, rights and remedies for EU citizens"[1]

Specifically it says:

> With regard to EU citizens, the [US] Supreme Court has held that foreign citizens resident abroad are not covered by the Fourth Amendment.

It appears to be based on this Supreme Court case[2]: United States v. Verdugo-Urquidez

[1] http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/STUD/2015/51921... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Verdugo-Urqui...

The 14th amendment is not relevant to actions taken by the FBI. It's an arm of the federal government, and the 14th amendment serves mostly to clarify that state governments (in addition to the federal government) must refrain from violating rights granted to US citizens through the constitution.

However, the FBI must abide by the 4th amendment, which specifies that warrants are needed for searches. The issue of whether data of foreigners located on US soil is subject to warrant-less search/inspection is a matter of interpreting the 4th amendment.

So data from a foreign national held in a computer in a particular State isn't within that states jurisdiction?

If the 4th requires warrants and the 14th requires state to treat all people as having equal protection under the law in their jurisdiction I don't see where the FBI can go [legally speaking] to do warrantless search of foreign nationals.

In short, how then can a State allow the FBI to operate within its jurisdiction in a way that doesn't provide all people equal legal protections. The State would have to prevent the FBI from operating?

Thanks for any further insights.

> However, the FBI must abide by the 4th amendment, which specifies that warrants are needed for searches. The issue of whether data of foreigners located on US soil is subject to warrant-less search/inspection is a matter of interpreting the 4th amendment.

And the interpretation is that a warrent isn't needed. The 4th doesn't protect me.