Q: Is airport questioning and search of U.S. citizen on arrival legal under Fourth Amendment?

A: The treatment you experienced at Boston Logan Airport is likely legal under what courts call the "border search exception" to the Fourth Amendment. When you enter the United States, even as a citizen, customs officers have much broader authority to search luggage and question travelers without warrants or specific suspicion than they would elsewhere in the country. This exception exists because the government has strong interests in controlling who and what enters the national boundaries.

Your dual citizenship with Russia wouldn't itself justify additional scrutiny, but international travel from certain regions might trigger routine enhanced screening procedures. Customs officials are also authorized to verify currency compliance since travelers must declare amounts over $10,000, which explains why they counted your money. The fact that they didn't find contraband or large undeclared sums doesn't retroactively make their search improper under current legal standards.

While the hour-long questioning feels intrusive and exhausting after a long journey, courts have consistently upheld more extensive questioning at borders than would be permitted in other settings. You might consider documenting your experiences for future reference, as patterns of targeting could potentially raise legal questions about selective enforcement. However, based on what you've described, the search and questioning likely fall within the broad powers courts have recognized for border officials when processing international arrivals.