Important amendments to the Federal Rules of Evidence came into effect on December 1, 2023: Amendments to Rule 106 (rule of completeness), 605 (exclusion of witnesses) and 702 (testimony by experts). These amendments will bring significant opportunities and challenges for defense lawyers. This presentation will discuss how to avoid the challenges and how to capitalize on the opportunities presented by these amendments. We will also discuss amendments that are scheduled to become effective in 2024 as well as important evidence related cases pending before the United States Supreme Court.

Amicus Brief of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and the Tenth Circuit Federal Defenders for the Districts of Kansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Utah in Support of the Appellant’s Petition for Rehearing En Banc

Police officers increasingly are deploying novel surveillance tools, such as cell-cite simulators, to gather evidence. Even when courts acknowledge that the surveillance was unconstitutional, often they decline to suppress the evidence based on the good-faith exception to the exclusionary rule. Laura Moraff offers three arguments defense attorneys can make when challenging the application of the good-faith exception in cases involving novel search technologies.

Brief of National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers as Amicus Curiae in Support of Petitioner.

President Gerald Goldstein's written statement to the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and House Government Reform and Oversight Subcommittee on National Security, International Affairs and Criminal Justice regarding government and law enforcement conduct in the 1993 confrontation between Branch Davidians and law enforcement in Waco, TX, and proposed changes in Exclusionary Rule Reform Act of 1995 (H.R. 666) and Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Improvement Act of 1995 (S. 3).

Brief of Amicus Curiae National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers in Support of Defendant-Appellant.

Amicus curiae brief of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers in support of Petitioner.

Joint Amicus curiae brief of the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation, the ACLU Foundation of Pennsylvania, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers in support of affirmance of the district court. 

Brief of the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers as Amici Curiae in Support of Respondent.

Brief Amici Curiae of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers and the Electronic Frontier Foundation in Support of Appellant’s Petition for Panel Rehearing and Rehearing En Banc

Proposals in Congress Make Future Wacos More Likely, Not Less -- Washington, DC (July 19, 1995) -- "Even as these Subcommittees begin to review the tragic debacle at Waco, ironically both Houses of Congress are considering measures to expand still further the powers of the very federal agencies responsible for that and other disasters. Those measures would bring about dramatic increases in the unchecked power, authority, and role of federal officials in everyday American life," according to National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) President Gerald H. Goldstein.

Provisions in Senate Crime Bill Would Eviscerate Fourth and Fifth Amendments -- Washington, DC (March 23, 1995) -- Proposals that would corrode the constitutional pillars of our legal system and undermine our cherished American democracy are now making their way through Congress.

Criminal Defense Bar Leader To Criticize Hypocrisy of Congress on Crime Measures -- Washington, DC (September 21, 1995) -- The head of the nation's criminal defense bar will criticize Congress' criminal justice agenda in a speech to the annual meeting of the District of Columbia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (DCACDL), to be held at Sfuzzi, in Washington's Union Station, on Friday evening, September 22.

Congress Should Act on the Common Lessons of Waco and Ruby Ridge -- Washington, DC (September 6, 1995) -- With Congress now focusing public attention on the law enforcement lawlessness that contributed to the tragedies at the Branch Davidians' Mount Carmel Center near Waco, Texas, and the home of the Weaver family on Ruby Ridge, Idaho, congressional leaders must adopt reforms to strengthen Americans' constitutional protections against such misconduct, and abandon proposals that would further weaken them, wrote Robert Fogelnest...

Joint Statement of Gerald H. Goldstein, Immediate Past President, and National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) -- Washington, DC (October 24, 1995) -- By virtue of their role in the justice system, the nation's criminal defense lawyers are uniquely positioned to observe how law enforcement and prosecutorial agencies perform their work. Before the headline-grabbing events at Waco and Ruby Ridge, NACDL's members were painfully aware of the increasingly militaristic culture growing throughout law enforcement in the United States.