Plexiglass retrofitting of courtrooms does not protect jurors, litigants, or court personnel from the potentially lethal coronavirus. Plexiglass will, however, interfere with a lawyer’s ability to communicate confidentially with clients.

The Sixth Amendment guarantee to a speedy trial is a cornerstone of the American criminal legal system. Its broad cloak serves to protect the interests of the accused, witnesses, the government and the community in ensuring meaningful and timely resolution to criminal charges. 

As a result of generous grant funding, NACDL is able to offer scholarship assistance to public defense attorneys to attend training programs.

While there are a variety of ways in which public defense is provided, to fulfill their constitutional obligations systems must have an infrastructure which ensures timely access to resourced, skilled, and zealous advocates and which operates as an independent and equal partner in the community's criminal legal system.

The Sixth Amendment guarantee to a speedy trial is a cornerstone of the American criminal legal system. Its broad cloak serves to protect the interests of the accused, witnesses, the government and the community in ensuring meaningful and timely resolution to criminal charges. Today, as judges, prosecutors, and defendants begin to navigate the aftermath of long periods of court closures and the resulting backlog of cases, stakeholders face new questions and challenges in meeting obligations to community health and safety while also protecting core constitutional rights.

Corrected Brief of Amicus Curiae National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers in Support of Plaintiffs-Appellees and Affirmance.

Argument: The government's practice of warrantlessly searching travelers' electronic devices at the border violates the Fourth and Sixth Amendments. For many criminal defense lawyers, their work compels them to cross the border with their devices, which they use as their virtual law office. The attorney-client privilege and the Constitution protect the information on those devices. Requiring the government to get a warrant for device searches at the border would trigger the judicial supervision that is necessary to protect that information and associated rights.

The right to counsel, guaranteed by the 6^th Amendment, promises every person, regardless of their charges or resources, has a skilled, zealous advocate by their side when they stand accused of a crime. As Gideon and other cases recognized, defendants' procedural and substantive rights cannot be protected unless every person has an attorney with the resources, skills, and independence to advocate for them. NACDL works to help reform inadequate public defense systems through training and technical assistance, public education, advocacy, and litigation.

Coalition letter to the House Rules Committee and House Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, and Science regarding a proposed amendment to the Department of Defense Appropriations Act of 2021 (H.R. 7617) to reestablish the Department of Justice Office for Access to Justice as it previously operated from 2010-2018.

The Champion of Public Defense Award recognizes an individual or group for exceptional efforts in making positive changes to a local, county, state, or federal public defense system. Although the outstanding direct, individual representation of every defendant is one of NACDL's foremost goals, this award is intended to highlight efforts toward systemic advances through legislation, litigation, or other strategies.

Brief of Amicus Curiae National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers in Support of Petitioner.

Argument: Non-unanimous juries are fundamentally different and less deliberative than the Sixth Amendment requires. Non-unanimous juries also fundamentally skew the decision of whether to exercise the jury trial right. The pernicious racial origins of the non-unanimity rule further undermine the Sixth Amendment jury trial right.

Brief of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers as Amicus Curiae in Support of Petitioner.

Argument: Like Gideon v. Wainwright (the only case the Supreme Court has recognized as falling within Teague v. Lane’s watershed rule exception), Ramos v. Louisiana is a watershed rule and therefore, under Teague v. Lane, applies retroactivity to cases on collateral federal review.  Ramos, like Gideon, overturned a badly flawed, errant precedent to restore a bedrock Sixth Amendment right.  Ramos, like Gideon also increases the accuracy of convictions, when accuracy is properly understood to refer to the fairness of the process and the likelihood that the defendant received procedural protections guaranteed by the Constitution, rather than the likelihood that actual guilt or innocence is determined.

Courts are developing protocols for how to safely resume jury trials after the coronavirus pandemic. The defense community cannot allow expedient solutions to backlogged dockets to subvert the Constitution by sanctioning proceedings that fall short of constitutional and statutory protections.

Business as usual will be impossible as courts restart face-to-face jury trials during the coronavirus pandemic. NACDL has identified 10 fundamental principles that can minimize the constitutional burden while protecting the public and stakeholders who must come together in the courtroom.

What is the best way to resume in-person proceedings as courts reopen after closures stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic? Defendants have a right to be physically present in the courtroom. How can courts ensure a fair and constitutional process going forward?

The fact that hearings and trials can be conducted via videoconference platforms does not make these proceedings legal. Criminal trials in which some or all witnesses testify remotely are susceptible to Sixth Amendment challenges. The authors offer five factors concerning which defense counsel should ask a judge to make findings before any witness testifies via two-way videoconference.