In the digital age, law enforcement is savvy enough to pull information about your client’s online presence and use it against them. Getting this data and challenging it are skills every modern defense attorney needs. This webinar covers how social media evidence can and cannot be accessed, how it’s authenticated, and viable legal arguments to use and challenge it in your own cases.

To access this content, you will have to create an NACDL account and complete a short form. You will not have to purchase a membership. 

Nearly every case involves a cell phone or an online account. Laws on device and account searches are continuing to evolve, as courts reconsider old doctrines that do not fit with the realities of the digital age. Below, find sample motions on suppressing emails, passcodes, and other electronically stored information.

​​​​Automatic License Plate Reader (ALPR) systems are getting more sophisticated and more accessible to police. ALPRs can gather information about people and their movements, but police also use them creatively: creating associations between vehicles and identifying “suspicious” travel patterns. 

This webinar from NACDL’s Fourth Amendment Center explores ALPR systems, the cases affecting law on open roads, and how to challenge this evidence in your own case.

To access this content, you will have to create an NACDL account and complete a short form. You will not have to purchase a membership. 

Cell Site Simulators, also known as IMSI catchers or Stingrays, mimic cell towers and trick phones within their radius into communicating with them instead, during which they are able to collect information about the device. Using a cell site simualtor is a Fourth Amendment Search, sometimes conducted without a court order. This resource explains this technology works, their judical authorization, how to identify this evidence in a case, and how to challenge that evidence. 

The below primer is a fact sheet on Automatic License Plate Readers (ALPRs). This software can run on a wide variety of video streams and captures information about vehicles as they pass including the license plate number, make and model of the car, the time and location, and sometimes the occupants. The primer explains how law enforcement use this information and walks through some potential arguments for defense lawyers challenging this evidence in their cases. 

How to Challenge NSA Terrorism Spying in Non-Terrorism Cases and The NSA Leaks: FISA 702 and PATRIOT 215 Litigation Strategies 

Government’s Response to Defendant’s Motion for Full Discovery Regarding Surveillance

U.S. v. Mohamed Osman Mohamud 3:10-cr-00475-KI (D. Ore.)

Memorandum of Law in Support of Plaintiffs’ Motion for a Preliminary Injunction

ACLU v. Clapper 1:13-cv-03994-WHP (S.D.N.Y.)

Memorandum In Support Of Motion For Summary Judgment

Amnesty, Int'l v. Clapper 1:08-cv-06259-JGK (S.D.N.Y.)

Reply to Government’s Opposition to Defendants’ Joint Motion Pursuant to Rule 33, Fed. R. Crim. P., for a New Trial

U.S. v. Basaaly Moalin 3:10-cr-04246-JM (S.D. Cal.)

United States' Response and Opposition to Defendants' Joint Motion for New Trial

U.S. v. Basaaly Moalin 3:10-cr-04246-JM (S.D. Cal.)

Statement of Facts and Memorandum of Points and Authorities In Support Of Joint Motion Pursuant to Rule 33, Fed. R. Crim. P., for a New Trial

U.S. v. Basaaly Moalin 3:10-cr-04246-JM (S.D. Cal.)

Created by Joe Ferguson, Loyola University Chicago School of Law

Brief Amici Curiae of ACLU, ACLU of Northern California and Electronic Frontier Foundation in Support of Defendants' Motion to Compel Discovery

U.S. v. Diaz-Rivera 12-cr-00030-EMC/EDL (N.D. Cal.)

United States’ Opposition to Defendant’s Motion to Compel Discovery

U.S. v. Fortunato Rodelo Lara 3:12-cr-00030-EMC (N.D. Cal.)