News & Commentary written by Brett Max Kaufman

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Brett Max Kaufman

Senior Staff Attorney

ÌÒ×ÓÊÓÆµCenter for Democracy

Bio

Brett Max Kaufman is a senior staff attorney in the ACLU’s Center for Democracy working on a variety of issues related to national security, technology, surveillance, privacy, and First Amendment rights. He has litigated cases including ÌÒ×ÓÊÓÆµv. Clapper, a challenge the NSA’s mass call-tracking program, Doe v. Mattis, a habeas challenge to the government’s military detention of a U.S. citizen in Iraq, and Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle v. Baltimore Police Department, a challenge to Baltimore’s mass aerial surveillance program. He joined the ÌÒ×ÓÊÓÆµas a legal fellow from 2012 to 2014, then spent one year as a teaching fellow in the Technology Law & Policy Clinic at New York University School of Law, where he continued to serve as an adjunct professor of law from 2015 to 2022. He returned to the ÌÒ×ÓÊÓÆµas a staff attorney in 2015. He is also an adjunct lecturer in law at UCLA School of Law.

Brett is a graduate of Stanford University and the University of Texas School of Law, where he was book review editor of the Texas Law Review and a human rights scholar at the Rapoport Center for Human Rights and Justice. After law school, he spent a year in Israel, serving as a foreign law clerk to Supreme Court Justice Asher Dan Grunis and as a volunteer attorney at Gisha Legal Center for Freedom of Movement. He then clerked for the Hon. Robert D. Sack of the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and for Judge Richard J. Holwell and (after Judge Holwell’s resignation) Judge Lewis A. Kaplan of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.


Featured work

Jul 3, 2024

Supreme Court Grants Trump, Future Presidents a Blank Check to Break the Law

Supreme Court Grants Trump, Future Presidents a Blank Check to Break the Law

Apr 8, 2024

The CIA's Long and Dangerous History of Refusing to Answer Absurdly Obvious Questions

The CIA's Long and Dangerous History of Refusing to Answer Absurdly Obvious Questions

Jun 23, 2022

Supreme Court Ruling Rejects the Promise of Miranda Rights

Supreme Court Ruling Rejects the Promise of Miranda Rights

Jan 20, 2022

In Montana, Your Right to Cell Phone Privacy is Up for Debate

In Montana, Your Right to Cell Phone Privacy is Up for Debate

Mar 13, 2019

Press Freedom Groups Urge Court to Uphold Core First Amendment Protection in DNC-Russia Lawsuit

Press Freedom Groups Urge Court to Uphold Core First Amendment Protection in DNC-Russia Lawsuit

Jan 11, 2019

William Barr’s Unsolicited Memo to Trump About Obstruction of Justice

William Barr’s Unsolicited Memo to Trump About Obstruction of Justice

Sep 19, 2018

Trump Is Unshackling America's Drones Thanks to Obama's Weakness

Trump Is Unshackling America's Drones Thanks to Obama's Weakness

Apr 17, 2018

Who Should Review Michael Cohen’s Files Under the Fourth Amendment?

Who Should Review Michael Cohen’s Files Under the Fourth Amendment?

Feb 9, 2018

Why the U.S. War on ISIS Is Illegal

Why the U.S. War on ISIS Is Illegal

Oct 16, 2017

The CIA Is Playing Coy About Trump’s First Raid In Yemen

The CIA Is Playing Coy About Trump’s First Raid In Yemen