Court Cases

Challenging government secrecy in prosecutors' use of surveillance letters called "administrative subpoenas"

The ACLU discovered what we suspect is an entirely sealed docket associated with the government’s request for an All Writs Act order.

The Supreme Judicial Court unanimously affirmed that the government must have specific information that a cellphone contains evidence of a crime before it can search or seize the device.

Victory! In a case involving cell site location information (CSLI), the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court held in September 2015 that the government must get a warrant for anything more than six hours of “telephone call” CSLI.

Victory! In October 2015, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled that public schools must turn over records relating to special education placements.

The ACLU of Massachusetts filed an amicus brief in March 2015 urging the state Supreme Judicial Court to hold that, when law enforcement has probable cause to obtain a warrant to look for a particular type of file on a cell phone, it should not be permitted to search the entire phone.

Can a defendant can be forced to decrypt their electronic files?

In a landmark ACLU of Massachusetts case, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled in 2014 that Massachusetts citizens have a constitutionally protected interest in cell site location information.