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
Mar 5, 2012
In Targeted Killing Speech, Holder Mischaracterizes Debate Over Judicial Review
Feb 24, 2012
Targeted Killing Drone Strikes: Secret or Not? The Government Wants It Both Ways
Feb 7, 2012
VIDEO: Report on Drone Strike Civilian Casualties and New Questions About Legality
Feb 1, 2012
ACLU Sues U.S. for Information on Targeted Killing Program
Dec 7, 2011
Secrecy Without Sense: State Department Censors Cables Already Published by WikiLeaks
Oct 19, 2011
U.S. Must Explain Targeted Killings of Its Own Citizens