NACDL Foundation for Criminal Justice

The NACDL Foundation for Criminal Justice was established to preserve and promote the core values of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL). The award supports the NACDL's Fourth Amendment Center (the Center) as it seeks to reinforce and restore Fourth Amendment protections of the US Constitution in the digital age. The Center's activities include providing advanced education on emerging issues at the intersection of technology, privacy, and the constitutional rights of the accused in criminal cases; developing tools and resources to help lawyers identify opportunities and challenge government surveillance; and undertaking strategic litigation to directly assist the criminal defense bar in novel or legally significant cases. Together, these activities aim to develop the law by ensuring that increasingly sophisticated and intrusive government surveillance is robustly challenged in the courts. The grant provides flexible support to the Center’s work.

The Foundation for Criminal Justice preserves and promotes the core values of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) and the American criminal justice system. The award supports the NACDL’s Fourth Amendment Center as it seeks to reinforce and restore the Fourth Amendment protections of the U.S. Constitution in the digital age. Work is focused in three core areas: 1) providing advanced education on emerging issues at the intersection of advancing technology, privacy, and the constitutional rights of the accused in criminal cases; 2) establishing a practical and dynamic toolkit of resources to help lawyers identify opportunities to challenge government surveillance tools and techniques as they arise in criminal cases; and, 3) providing tactical litigation support to assist the criminal defense bar in cases that present an opportunity to challenge the use of new technologies that invade traditional realms of privacy, and provide support for defense lawyers and impact litigators.

The Foundation for Criminal Justice preserves and promotes the core values of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NADCL) and the American criminal justice system. The award supports the establishment of the Fourth Amendment Center within NADCL with hree core objectives: 1) provide advanced education on emerging issues at the intersection of technology, privacy and the constitutional rights of the accused in criminal cases; 2) establish a practical toolkit of resources to help lawyers identify opportunities to challenge government surveillance tools and techniques as they arise in criminal cases; and 3) establish a tactical litigation support network to assist the criminal defense bar in cases that present an opportunity to challenge the use of new technologies that breach traditional realms of privacy, and to partner with impact litigators.