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NACDL is committed to enhancing the capacity of the criminal defense bar to safeguard fundamental constitutional rights.
NACDL harnesses the unique perspectives of NACDL members to advocate for policy and practice improvements in the criminal legal system.
NACDL envisions a society where all individuals receive fair, rational, and humane treatment within the criminal legal system.
NACDL’s mission is to serve as a leader, alongside diverse coalitions, in identifying and reforming flaws and inequities in the criminal legal 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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We write today to urge the Department of Justice (DOJ) to quickly complete an updated Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) for the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Next Generation Identification System (NGI) as part of a broader effort to examine the goals and impact of NGI. The previous PIA on NGI’s face recognition component dates back to 2008. Since that time the program has undergone a radical transformation—one that raises serious privacy and civil liberties concerns.
We represent a wide range of privacy and human rights advocates, technology companies, and trade associations that hold an equally wide range of positions on surveillance reform. Many of us have differing views on exactly what reforms must be included in any bill reauthorizing USA PATRIOT Act Section 215, which currently serves as the legal basis for the NSA’s bulk collection of telephone metadata and is set to expire on June 1, 2015. Our broad, diverse, and bipartisan coalition believes that the status quo is untenable and that it is urgent that Congress move forward with reform.
The undersigned organizations write to express concern over the Justice Department’s demand for information associated with a website used to organize protests on Inauguration Day. While the government, in the face of mounting public pressure, has significantly narrowed its initial demand for data on every individual who visited the site, we remain concerned that the government made its sweeping request in the first place – and that it continues to maintain that this request was legal and appropriate.
NACDL undersigned a letter on July 8, 2013 to Attorney General Eric H. Holder, Jr. and Michael E. Horowitz to ask that the Department of Justice make public any findings by the Department’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) regarding the collection of Americans’ telephone records under Section 215 of the Patriot Act.
NACDL undersigned a letter to the U.S. government on July 18, 2013 urging greater transparency around national security-related requests by the US government to Internet, telephone, and web-based service providers for information about their users and subscribers.
We write to urge you not to renew the Section 215 Bulk Telephony Metadata Program when the current order expires on June 20, 2014. The program is not effective. It should end.
We write to express our concern about your recent call to restrict the constitutional rights of individuals in the United States suspected of terrorist activity by seeking to codify or expand the “public safety exception” to Miranda v. Arizona. Current law provides ample flexibility to protect the public against imminent terrorist threats while still permitting the use of statements made by the accused in a criminal prosecution. Weakening Miranda would undercut our fundamental Fifth Amendment rights for no perceptible gain.
Letter with NACDL New York affiliate NYSACDL to Department of Justice leadership regarding unsafe, inhumane, and unconstitutional conditions persisting at the Rikers Island Correctional Facility.
Letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland regarding former Attorney General William Barr's ruling in Matter of Thomas and Matter of Thompson, 27 I. & N. Dec. 674 (AG 2019) changing DOJ and DHS policy so state courts can only affect immigration sentencing if related to underlying criminal proceedings and not the immigration case.
Comments with FAMM to Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco regarding U.S. Attorney offices requiring waiver of the right to seek compassionate release during plea negotiations.
Comments to the Department of Justice National Security Division responding to the department’s request for suggestions on clarifying and modernizing the implementing regulations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938 (FARA).
Comments to the Bureau of Prisons Office of General Counsel regarding a proposed rule to apply good-time credits earned under First Step Act provisions to individuals in BOP custody with convictions under the D.C. Code.
NACDL Counsel and Director of First Step Act Resource Center Elizabeth A. Blackwood’s written statement to the Department of Justice upon NACDL’s participation in a stakeholder listening session regarding realization of reforms outlined in the FIRST STEP Act (S. 756), signed into law in December 2018 and still in the process of being implemented.
Coalition letter to Department of Justice leadership regarding the need to reevaluate a January 2021 memo from the Office of Legal Counsel that outlined a plan to return to federal prison people who had been released to home confinement under CARES Act (H.R. 748, 2020) provisions due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and proposing solutions to assured logistical issues and unfairness should the memo be heeded as written and currently interpreted.
Coalition letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland regarding the risks of contracting COVID-19 for those living and working in carceral facilities, and the release options available to reduce that risk through compassionate release, home confinement, and other CARES Act-authorized release programs (H.R.748, 2020).