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

Sep 22, 2017

Will Apple’s FaceID Affect Your Rights?

Will Apple’s FaceID Affect Your Rights?

Aug 15, 2017

A Sweeping Search Warrant Targets Anti-Trump Website in Clear Threat to the Constitution

A Sweeping Search Warrant Targets Anti-Trump Website in Clear Threat to the Constitution

Aug 4, 2017

A Federal Court Says Your Prescription Records Aren’t Really Private. The Supreme Court Might Have Something to Say About That.

A Federal Court Says Your Prescription Records Aren’t Really Private. The Supreme Court Might Have Something to Say About That.

Jun 13, 2017

The U.S. Intelligence Community Can Share Your Personal Information With Other Governments, and We’re Demanding Answers

The U.S. Intelligence Community Can Share Your Personal Information With Other Governments, and We’re Demanding Answers

Jan 19, 2017

In First of Many, ÌÒ×ÓÊÓÆµFOIA Request Seeks Information About the New President’s Conflicts of Interests

In First of Many, ÌÒ×ÓÊÓÆµFOIA Request Seeks Information About the New President’s Conflicts of Interests

Nov 23, 2016

Presidents Can’t Use National Security Concerns as an Excuse to Spy on Critics

Presidents Can’t Use National Security Concerns as an Excuse to Spy on Critics

Oct 4, 2016

New Documents Reveal Government Effort to Impose Secrecy on Encryption Company

New Documents Reveal Government Effort to Impose Secrecy on Encryption Company

Aug 8, 2016

Details Abound in Drone ‘Playbook’ — Except for the Ones That Really Matter Most

Details Abound in Drone ‘Playbook’ — Except for the Ones That Really Matter Most

Jul 19, 2016

The Things We Need to Know

The Things We Need to Know

Jul 1, 2016

President Obama’s New, Long-Promised Drone 'Transparency' Is Not Nearly Enough

President Obama’s New, Long-Promised Drone 'Transparency' Is Not Nearly Enough