US Customs confiscating laptops

Boing Boing reports that Consumerist reports that the Washington Post reports that US Customs are continuing their practice of requiring some travellers to log into their laptop computers and provide data to the government. In some cases, they`re confiscating the computers on a promise of returning them in a few days. This is problematic from a privacy point of view, but I also have to wonder what would happen with a lawyer crossing the border whose laptop is full of privileged info.