THE INTERVENTION OF COMMUNICATIONS AMONG LAWYERS DEFENDERS AND YOUR CUSTOMERS AND THE WAR AGAINST TERRORISM IN THE UNITED STATES

Abstract

Th e right to an eff ective legal defense in criminal cases is guaranteed by the United States Constitution and includes the attorney-client privilege as a fundamental component. Following the terrorist attacks of September 11, the Government adopted a series of measures that expanded the Executive’s power to investigate terrorism and aff ected fundamental rights, among them the privilege that guarantees the confi dentiality of communications between lawyers and their clients. One of the most criticized measures were reforms to administrative penitentiary rules that permit the interception of communications between lawyers and clients without a judicial order as well as rules that limit defense lawyers access to secret information without accreditation and clearance. History shows that critical challenges to fundamental rights often take place during periods of war or major national crisis. It is at this time, however, when courts must intervene to prevent government abuse in the name of national security. Considering that national security is a fundamental duty of the State, courts have adopted rules that guarantee this public right without diminishing constitutional traditions like the right to maintain confi dential communications between defense layers and their clients and the right to counsel.