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NACDL is committed to enhancing the capacity of the criminal defense bar to safeguard fundamental constitutional rights.
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NACDL envisions a society where all individuals receive fair, rational, and humane treatment within the criminal justice system.
NACDL’s mission is to serve as a leader, alongside diverse coalitions, in identifying and reforming flaws and inequities in the criminal justice system, and redressing systemic racism, and ensuring that its members and others in the criminal defense bar are fully equipped to serve all accused persons at the highest level.
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Comments to the Judicial Conference of the U.S. Standing Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure regarding a proposed amendment to Rule 11 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure.
Between 2012 and 2014, NACDL’s Task Force on Restoration of Rights and Status After Conviction embarked on a study of relief mechanisms available to those with a conviction on their record on the local, state and federal level. At an event at the Open Society Foundations in Washington, DC, NACDL released a major new report that comprehensively explored the stigma and policies relegating tens of millions of people in America to second-class status because of an arrest or conviction.
Brief for the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers as Amicus Curiae in Support of Petitioner.
Argument: The due process clause and 18 U.S. C. § 924(d) require that a firearm be subject to forfeiture to extinguish ownership. The statutory history of § 922(g) does not suggest any intent to allow deprivation of ownership interest without any process. Section 924(d) explicitly distinguishes between an "owner," a "possessor" and a "delegate." Ability to transfer possession to a third party is consistent with the fact that a disability may be temporary. Like forfeiture, permanent retention of firearms may be an excessive fine under the Eighth Amendment.
Brief Amici Curiae of the National Consumer Law Center, Demos, The National Association of Consumer Advocates, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, the National Employment Law Project, and the Southern Coalition for Social Justice.
Argument: Fair and accurate reporting of criminal record information is essential to protecting individuals’ rights and opportunities. Background checks contain a high rate of errors with deleterious impacts on consumers. Creation of a Sec. 1681(a)(y) exclusion would remove nearly all FCRA protections from employment criminal records reports. Judicial enactment of a § 1681a(y) FCRA exclusion for every circumstance in which the employer has a “policy against employing those with certain criminal histories” – every employer who uses a criminal background check – would swallow the rule itself.
The troubling confluence of overcriminalization and ever-expanding collateral consequences in the electronic era has not affected all people equally. Poor and minority communities, where residents are policed most heavily and where zero-tolerance policing practices have led to skyrocketing numbers of minor quality of life arrests, bear the brunt of the nation's crimialization obsession. As a result, African Americans and Hispanics bear the brunt of consequences that follow a criminal record.
People exiting the custody of the criminal justice system encounter substantial challenges in gaining employment, finding housing, and accessing medical and mental health care. This article explores areas in need of attention and reform so that young people who have been adjudicated delinquent or convicted of a crime are not punished subsequently by other systems they encounter.
In August 2018, NACDL hosted its 17th Annual State Criminal Justice Network Conference and 2nd Annual Presidential Summit in Atlanta, Georgia. The Conference examined the destructive effect that a vast network of penalties, debarments, and disabilities following a criminal conviction has on the millions of people who have come in contact with the criminal justice system.
Part of the Restoration of Rights Project
In addition to the 54 jurisdictional profile documents, Margaret Love prepared a set of charts that make it possible to see national patterns in restoration laws and policies. The charts give an overview of how the legal systems of each jurisdiction and the federal system provide for "second chances," and allow state-to-state comparisons.
Maine Restoration of Rights, Pardon, Expungement & Sealing
Louisiana Restoration of Rights, Pardon, Expungement & Sealing
Kentucky Restoration of Rights, Pardon, Expungement & Sealing
Kansas Restoration of Rights, Pardon, Expungement & Sealing
Iowa Restoration of Rights, Pardon, Expungement & Sealing
