NACDL's Fourth Amendment Center offers direct assistance to defense lawyers handling cases involving new surveillance tools, technologies and tactics that infringe on the constitutional rights of people in America. The Center is available to help members of the defense bar in bringing new Fourth Amendment challenges, providing a range of support: from training and resources to expert consultation and direct litigation, all free of charge.
Jumana Musa is a human rights attorney and racial justice activist. She is currently the Director of the Fourth Amendment Center at the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. As director, Ms. Musa oversees NACDL’s initiative to build a new, more durable Fourth Amendment legal doctrine for the digital age. The Fourth Amendment Center educates the defense bar on privacy challenges in the digital age, provides a dynamic toolkit of resources to help lawyers identify opportunities to challenge government surveillance, and establishes a tactical litigation support network to assist in key cases. Ms. Musa previously served as NACDL’s Sr. Privacy and National Security Counsel.
Prior to joining NACDL, Ms. Musa served as a policy consultant for the Southern Border Communities Coalition, a coalition of over 60 groups across the southwest that address militarization and brutality by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents in border communities. Previously, she served as Deputy Director for the Rights Working Group, a national coalition of civil rights, civil liberties, human rights, and immigrant rights advocates where she coordinated the “Face the Truth” campaign against racial profiling. She was also the Advocacy Director for Domestic Human Rights and International Justice at Amnesty International USA, where she addressed the domestic and international impact of U.S. counterterrorism efforts on human rights. She was one of the first human rights attorneys allowed to travel to the naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and served as Amnesty International’s legal observer at military commission proceedings on the base.
Ms. Musa has also worked as a policy attorney for the National Network to End Domestic Violence and handled international relations and immigration issues as a fellow in the office of Congressman Jesse L. Jackson, Jr. As an adjunct professor at Georgetown University’s Center for Contemporary Arab Studies, she taught the course “Human Rights in the Middle East and North Africa.” In 2016, Ms. Musa received the Ralph Johns Civil Rights Award from the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee in recognition of her work. Ms. Musa holds a BA in International Relations from Brown University and a JD from Georgetown University Law Center.
Michael Price serves as the Litigation Director for the Fourth Amendment Center at NACDL, which provides the defense bar with resources and litigation support designed to preserve privacy rights in the digital age. Michael focuses on cutting-edge Fourth Amendment issues including the “third-party doctrine,” location tracking, device searches, parallel construction, and government hacking. He provides trainings and direct legal assistance to equip defense lawyers with the tools they need to ensure that the Fourth Amendment keeps pace with emerging technologies.
Michael previously served as Senior Counsel for the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law. As part of the Liberty and National Security program, Michael worked to oppose discriminatory surveillance and immigration practices, developed legislation to enhance oversight and accountability for the NYPD, and co-authored numerous amicus briefs in cases involving electronic surveillance and privacy issues, including United States v. Jones, Riley v. California, and Carpenter v. United States.
From 2008-2011, Michael was the National Security Coordinator for NACDL, where he provided legal assistance for the defense of detainees in the military commissions at Guantanamo Bay. Michael is a frequent commentator on privacy and national security issues for national media outlets. He is the author of National Security and Local Police (2013) and Rethinking Privacy: Fourth Amendment “Papers” and the Third-Party Doctrine (2016). He holds a J.D. from NYU School of Law and a B.A. from Columbia University in Political Science and Middle East & Asian Languages and Cultures.
Sidney Thaxter serves as a Senior Litigator for the Fourth Amendment Center at NACDL, which provides the defense bar with resources and litigation support designed to preserve privacy rights in the digital age. Sidney focuses on new and emerging electronic surveillance including: location tracking, communication interception, device searches, government hacking, biometric identification, and data collection.
Previously Sidney was the head of the Digital Forensic Practice at the Bronx Defenders where he advised attorneys on social media, device extraction and analysis, GPS evidence, cell site analysis, phone and IP records, electronic search warrants, and eavesdropping warrants, among other things. He also served as a Staff Attorney, handling all levels of cases from misdemeanors to homicides, the Attorney Supervisor of the Investigation Practice, a member of the Homicide Practice Group and the Forensic Practice Group.
Sidney holds a J.D. from CUNY School of Law in 2011. While at CUNY Law Sidney was the recipient of the Charles H. Revson Public Interest Fellowship, a member of the Suspension Representation Project, as well as the National Lawyer’s Guild police misconduct project. As a student attorney with the CUNY Adult Defender Clinic, Sidney represented clients charged with misdemeanor offenses in Queens. Sidney was an intern with The Bronx Defenders, the Legal Aid Society, and Fisher Byrialsen & Kreizer, a private criminal law and civil rights firm. Prior to law school, Sidney was an investigator for the Legal Aid Society in Manhattan.
Clare Garvie is a privacy lawyer whose work focuses on the intersection between new technologies and civil and due process rights. She currently serves as Training and Resource Counsel with the Fourth Amendment Center at NACDL, providing trainings and technical assistance to ensure defense lawyers across the country can best protect clients’ constitutional rights in the face of emerging technologies. Prior to joining NACDL, Clare was a Senior Associate with the Center on Privacy and Technology, a think tank based at Georgetown Law. She was the lead researcher and author on a number of the Center’s reports on police use of face recognition, including: The Perpetual Line-Up: Unregulated Police Face Recognition in America in 2016; Garbage In, Garbage Out: Face Recognition on Flawed Data and America Under Watch: Face Surveillance in the United States in 2019, and A forensic Without the Science: Face Recognition in U.S. Criminal Investigations in 2022. She has testified before the House Oversight Committee and state legislatures and worked with legislators on both sides of the aisle on privacy legislation. Her commentary has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal. She holds a J.D. from Georgetown Law and a B.A from Barnard College in Political Science, Human Rights, and Psychology.
Max Behrman is the NACDL’s Fourth Amendment Center Legal Fellow, supporting the Center’s legal and advocacy work at the nexus of law and technology. Before joining NACDL, Max was a legal intern with the ACLU’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology (SPT) Project, where he focused on biometric regulations, governmental purchasing of location data, public health orders, and state-compelled decryption of electronic devices. Prior to SPT, Max interned with the City Bar Justice Center, conducting over-the-phone legal intakes and research to assist low-income New Yorkers.
A techie from an early age, Max worked in the IT sector—most recently serving for four years as the IT and Operations Manager at the New York Civil Liberties Union—after graduating from New York University with a B.A. in Journalism and Psychology. He currently serves as a member of the Technology, Cyber and Privacy Law Committee at the New York City Bar Association and holds a J.D. from the City University of New York School of Law, where he was a Managing Articles Editor for the CUNY Law Review.
Leslie Clark is the NACDL’s Fourth Amendment Center Fellowship Manager. In this role, she manages the Center’s emerging fellowship program, which will place technologists in Public Defenders offices around the country. Prior to joining NACDL, Leslie was the Grievance and Bargaining Representative for the Florida District of SEIU 32BJ. She has a background in designing and administering leadership programming at the intersection of race and gender justice. Leslie holds an MA from the University of San Francisco, and a BS from Northwestern University.
Julian Wallace is the Education and Research Associate for the 4th Amendment Center. In this role, she supports the Center’s policy and litigation work, which aims to help defense lawyers protect privacy in a county capable of mass digital surveillance. She graduated with Honors from the University of Arizona, where she studied Political Science and Sociology and wrote her Honors Thesis on the commodification of personal behavioral data.