Britain, as every American knows, has a free speech problem. As a Brit, though, I am starting to wonder whether the United States might be developing a free speech problem of its own. The question occurred to me in an immigration line as I checked my devices for memes that might be deemed anti-MAGA.

Foreign visitors, including a well-known French scientist on his way to a conference in Houston, have been denied entry to the U.S. for expressing legal but critical opinions of the current administration. Border officials interpret the law as meaning that they can treat your phone the way they treat your luggage — that is, they can look at whatever they want, provided they don’t remove anything. Travelers are now warned that an anti-Trump joke might have them turned back — the kind of warning we used to issue about autocracies.