Attorney-Client Privilege for Terror Suspects

On October 31, 2001, the Attorney General published in the Federal Register amendments to existing regulations, allowing the Department of Justice to monitor the attorney-client conversations of persons in custody whom the Justice Department suspects of being terrorists. This has been controversial and has stirred up much heated debate... This brief will not seek to present the legal arguments against or in favor of these changes, which can be obtained via the following links:

These changes are to be used when " .... reasonable suspicion exists to believe that an inmate may use communications with attorneys or their agents to further or facilitate acts of violence or terrorism .... ", with the intent that this monitoring be utilized " ... to deter such acts .....". Leaving aside the legalities, a couple of points are of interest:
If such monitoring is legal, then implementing the regulations as written seems rather counterintuitive .......



© SNi 12/28/2001