The New Regulation Allowing Federal Agents to Monitor Attorney-Client Conversations: Why It Threatens Fourth Amendment Values

In this essay, we address the implications of the Justice Department’s federal regulation allowing federal agents, under some circumstances, to monitor traditionally confidential meetings between federal inmates and their lawyers. We first review the history of attorney-client privilege under federal law and the Constitutional protections for such communications. We then discuss the troubling aspects of the new Ashcraft regulation and propose an alternative to the regulation which would be less intrusive on the rights of federal inmates while addressing the governmental interest in preventing further acts of terrorism.