Bio
Nathan Freed Wessler () is a deputy director with the ACLU’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, where he focuses on litigation and advocacy around surveillance and privacy issues, including government searches of electronic devices, requests for sensitive data held by third parties, and use of surveillance technologies. In 2017, he argued Carpenter v. United States in the U.S. Supreme Court, a case that established that the Fourth Amendment requires law enforcement to get a search warrant before requesting cell phone location data from a person’s cellular service provider.
Nate was previously a staff attorney in the Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project and legal fellow in the ACLU National Security Project. Prior to that, he served as a law clerk to the Hon. Helene N. White of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Nate is a graduate of Swarthmore College and New York University School of Law, where he was a Root-Tilden-Kern public interest scholar. Before law school, he worked as a field organizer in the ACLU’s Washington Legislative Office.
Featured work
Apr 15, 2013
Reading of Emails Without Warrant Likely Extends Beyond IRS
Apr 10, 2013
New Documents Suggest IRS Reads Emails Without a Warrant
Apr 3, 2013
Court Agrees to Consider ACLU Arguments That Fourth Amendment Requires Warrant For Access to Prescription Database
Jan 25, 2013
ACLU Challenging DEA’s Access to Confidential Prescription Records Without a Warrant
Jul 23, 2012
Government Wins Right to Pretend That Cables Released by WikiLeaks Are Still Secret
Jun 26, 2012
The Government’s Pseudo-Secrecy Snow Job on Targeted Killing
Jun 7, 2012
First the 'targeted killing' campaign, then the targeted propaganda campaign
Mar 29, 2012
Calling Out the CIA for Its Secrecy Game on Targeted Killing
Mar 22, 2012
Broad Spectrum of Organizations Support ACLU Legal Fight for Transparency on U.S. Drone Program
Mar 15, 2012
Drone Strikes Filing Today: Appealing the CIA's Attempt to Hide the Worst-Kept Secret in the World