Summary
The NLG’s mass-defense know-your-rights and legal-observer materials are the canonical US-practitioner reference for running legal support at a protest: pocket KYR cards, a legal-observer training manual, and arrestee-support guidance.
Body
The National Lawyers Guild is the US bar association historically tied to the progressive movement; its mass-defense program has produced pocket know-your-rights cards, a legal-observer training manual, and arrestee-support guidance that are the de facto standard for US protest legal support [source: nlg-know-your-rights]. The KYR card is structured around the rule that matters at the moment of police contact: do not consent to a search, do not answer questions without a lawyer present, ask “am I being detained?” and “am I free to go?”, and remember you have the right to remain silent — the wording is deliberately short so it can be printed on a laminated card distributed at the staging area [source: nlg-know-your-rights].
The legal-observer manual describes the LO’s job as observation and documentation, not intervention: LOs wear identifiable green hats (or other high-visibility marking), keep written notes of police conduct and protester behaviour, and hand their notes to the defense attorney if anyone is arrested. LOs are explicitly told not to argue with police, not to identify themselves as lawyers, and not to take physical action — they are documentary witnesses, not advocates in the moment [source: nlg-know-your-rights].
The arrestee-support materials cover what happens from arrest through arraignment: the right to a phone call, the right to a lawyer, the difference between a summons and a detention, how to refuse a search, and how to document the arrest for a future civil claim [source: nlg-know-your-rights]. The materials are jurisdiction-tagged (US federal constitutional law plus state-specific supplements) and dated — the underlying constitutional law is stable but the policing practice it encounters shifts, so the materials include explicit revision notes.
Free download, all rights reserved; reuse requires permission [source: nlg-know-your-rights]. Treat as link-only and paraphrase rather than reproduce.
Use it for
Designing a pre-action legal support plan for a US protest; training a legal-observer team; integrating legal observers with marshals and jail support.
Related
- boycotts-and-strikes
- buergerbegehren
- citizen-lobbying
- dilemma-actions
- escalation
- incidencia-politica
- methods-of-nonviolent-action
- noncooperation
- nonviolent-direct-action
- pillars-of-support
- structure-tests
- the-campaign-cycle
- the-tactic-star
Open Questions
- Confirm current edition year of the KYR card and LO manual; the Guild updates them when case law shifts.
- Not legal advice. This summary describes a US jurisdiction; campaigners elsewhere need local equivalents.