Hacker Lawyer Jay Leiderman Is Dead At 50

Leiderman, who’s survived by his nine-year-old son Lydon, died of an apparent heart attack on Tuesday, his brother Craig said in a brief statement. Ventura’s medical examiner said an exact cause of death would likely take months to certify.

Before his work with hackers, Leiderman defended a Ventura man who’d been arrested in a drug bust, and whose cellphone an officer searched without a warrant. The California Supreme Court eventually heard the case but ruled the officer’s actions constitutional. The decision sparked a rush by state legislators to try and shield electronic devices from warrantless searches. Two years later, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a contrary ruling. In his majority opinion, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that cellphones are “such a pervasive and insistent part of daily life” that, were aliens to visit Earth, they “might conclude they were an important feature of human anatomy.”

A life-long Deadhead and punk music fan, Leiderman successfully defended a slew of clients arrested under anti-drug laws. He once took on clients who had their kids taken away after police found marijuana hidden in their home. And he won. He was as a fierce advocate for medical marijuana patients in particular for more than a decade, writing a book on the issue in 2011 for the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. In 2013, he joined other activist lawyers in founding the Whistleblower Defense League. At its launch, he accused the Justice Department and FBI of targeting political dissent with weapons of oppression, harassment, and fear.

“People are being subpoenaed, indicted, and incarcerated,” he said, “simply for exploring the truth.”

In an essay on his website, Leiderman defended lawyers who get a bad rap for taking on unpopular clients, including those charged with unspeakable crimes. The guiltier the client, he believed, the greater the need for skilled representation. “I can only state that what follows is my own brand of patriotism,” he said. “I defend those charged with crimes because it is both my duty as a lawyer, and as an American.”

A funeral, followed by a burial, will be held on Sunday, Sept. 12, at the Robert Schoem’s Menorah Chapel in Paramus, NJ.

Update, 9:30pm: This story was updated with a cause of death provided by a family member.

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