Fourth Amendment Center

NACDL's Fourth Amendment Center offers direct assistance to defense lawyers handling cases involving new surveillance tools, technologies and tactics that infringe on the constitutional rights of people in America. The Center is available to help members of the defense bar in bringing new Fourth Amendment challenges.

           

 To request assistance or additional information, contact 4AC@nacdl.org.

 

About the Center Training and Webinars Reports and Publications Amicus Briefs Litigation Support

 

Launched in April 2018, the Fourth Amendment Center seeks to build a robust legal infrastructure to challenge outdated legal doctrines that undermine privacy rights in the digital age. To this end, the Center is available to provide litigation assistance in cases raising new Fourth Amendment concerns, including:

Device Search Reverse Search Warrants Facial Recognition Digital Location Tracking Predictive Policing Body Cameras Government Hacking

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Supported by NFCJ

The NACDL Foundation for Criminal Justice preserves and promotes the core values of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and the American criminal justice system.

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Defense lawyers with cases involving any of these issues are encouraged to contact the Center. The Center is available to provide consultations and litigation resources as well as direct assistance in support of a defendant’s Fourth Amendment claims. Specifically, the Center may assist in motion practice, preparation for suppression hearings, appellate strategy, brief writing, and oral argument. The Center also provides group trainings for defense lawyers around the country and upon request.

 

Learn more about the Center's history and staff.

 

 

Featured

Read Now: Compelled Decryption Primer

The Supreme Court recognized in Riley v. California that cell phones are unlike other objects becasue they contain the most intimate details of life. The Court held that the Fourth Amendment requires law enforcement to get a warrant to search a phone, even incident to arrest. Law enforcement can gain access to devices via consent or digital extraction tools. But when those methods fail, can law enforcement compel someone to produce their passcode? Or provide their biometrics to unlock/decrypt the device? This primer outlines the state of the law and offers a guide for defense lawyers. 

 

Read Now: Protecting Your Digital Devices at the Border

Courts have long made it clear that agents can search the bags of people entering the country. For the past decade or so, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has applied that logic to digital devices. NACDL members are uniquely exposed to abuse in this context: digital devices store materials and information subject to the attorney-client privilege and attorney work-product doctrine, as well as information on overseas clients and witnesses, and other extremely sensitive materials that could be covered by Rule 1.6 of the Model Rules of Professional Responsibility.

 

Watch Now: Phones, Files, and the Fourth: Border Searches and the Attorney-Client Privilege

As border agents increasingly target digital devices and border crossings, defense lawyers face a growing threat to the confidentiality of client files. This webinar focuses on the intersection of constitutional law, border policy, and attorney-client privilege. Learn how to protect sensitive data, assert legal safeguards, and challenge unlawful digital searches—before your next border crossing becomes a breach of confidentiality.

 

 

Reports

  

  

  

Find the rest of our reports and primers here.

 

 

CLE Training and Webinar Library

 
Phones, Files, and the Fourth: Border Searches and the Attorney-Client Privilege

This webinar is presented by Esha Bhandari, Deputy Director of the ACLU Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, and Amir Makled, a trial lawyer who specializes in civil rights, personal injury, and criminal defense work. 

 
Artificial Justice: AI, Tech, and Criminal Defense

NACDL’s Fourth Amendment Center and the Center on Privacy & Technology at Georgetown Law hosted a conference and discussed the tools law enforcement use, how to challenge that evidence, and what’s on the horizon. View the recordings below to equip yourself with the knowledge you need to defend clients in an increasingly digital world.  

 
Defense Strategies for Getting (and Challenging) Social Media Evidence

 

Tiny Constables: Automatic License Plate Readers and the Fourth Amendment

 

Litigation Support

 

Need help with a case?

 

The Center is available to provide consultations and litigation resources as well as direct assistance in support of a defendant’s Fourth Amendment claims. Specifically, the Center may assist in motion practice, preparation for suppression hearings, appellate strategy, brief writing, and oral argument. The Center also provides group trainings for defense lawyers around the country and upon request.

To request assistance or additional information, contact 4AC@nacdl.org.

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