NACDL gets grant to fund NACDL Fourth Amendment Center

Letter from NACDL Past President Gerry Morris of Austin, Texas today, in part:

I am pleased to report that the Foundation for Criminal Justice has received a significant new grant from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. The grant will fund the establishment of an NACDL Fourth Amendment Center. I have long thought that this is a perfect project for NACDL, and I am grateful to the NACDL Staff for helping to make this a reality.

The principal goals of the Fourth Amendment Center will be to create educational materials, conduct trainings, establish a robust resource center, and assist in litigating surveillance issues in criminal proceedings. The overarching vision is to build an infrastructure necessary to identify key cases that can challenge outdated Fourth Amendment legal doctrine and create new, more durable doctrine for the digital age. Since NACDL, as the nation’s premier criminal defense bar association, is uniquely situated to implement the grant, the MacArthur Foundation has stipulated that the FCJ engage NACDL to implement the terms of the grant.

Although the grant proposal was submitted prior to the recent election, it is quite clear that the need for robust litigation of Fourth Amendment issues in every case will be increasingly vital in the coming years. Additionally, the need to educate defense lawyers in all practice settings as to the pervasive and intrusive use of increasingly complex and sophisticated surveillance devices has never been greater.

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