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📝 Page Status: Draft — sourced but not yet reviewed

  • Status: draft
  • Sources: 1
  • Relationships: 2
  • Research debt items: 8

Esha Bhandari

Summary

Esha Bhandari is Director of the ACLU Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project, which litigates and advocates for freedom of expression and privacy rights in the digital age. She was lead counsel in Sandvig v. Barr, challenging CFAA application to academic and journalistic audit testing online.

Verified Facts

  • The official ACLU biography describes Bhandari as Director of the Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project.1
  • Her expertise areas include artificial intelligence and civil liberties, digital journalism and online accountability research, and immigration enforcement intersecting with expression and privacy.1
  • She litigated Sandvig v. Barr, a First Amendment challenge to the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act on behalf of online discrimination researchers.1
  • She litigated Alasaad v. Wolf, challenging suspicionless electronic device searches at the U.S. border, and Guan v. Mayorkas for journalists questioned at the border.1
  • She argued before the U.S. Supreme Court in United States v. Hansen, narrowing a federal law that criminalized First Amendment-protected speech about immigration.1
  • She was an Equal Justice Works fellow with the ACLU Immigrants' Rights Project.1
  • She is a graduate of McGill University, Columbia Journalism School, and Columbia Law School, and clerked for Judge Amalya L. Kearse on the Second Circuit.1

Relevance to Open Source and Software Companies

Bhandari's CFAA litigation in Sandvig is directly relevant to security researchers, auditors, and software developers whose investigative techniques may violate website terms of service. Her work on AI, platform accountability research, and border device searches also intersects with software industry compliance and researcher liability.

Relationships

  • PERSON-ESHA-BHANDARI cites SRC-BHANDARI-ACLU.
  • PERSON-ESHA-BHANDARI affiliated_with ORG-ACLU.

Sources

  1. SRC-BHANDARI-ACLU: Esha Bhandari ACLU Staff Biography.

Research Debt

  • Create CASE-* page and primary source for mentioned case Sandvig v. Barr.
  • Create CASE-* page and primary source for mentioned case Alasaad v. Wolf.
  • Create CASE-* page and primary source for mentioned case Guan v. Mayorkas.
  • Create CASE-* page and primary source for mentioned case United States v. Hansen.
  • Add Sandvig v. Barr procedural history and final outcome details.
  • Document AI litigation and policy work in detail.
  • Corroborate self-reported biography or about-page claims with independent sources (institutional profile, court docket, case page, or reputable journalism).
  • Add primary or secondary sources for major litigation and impact claims (dockets, case pages, official court records, or reputable journalism).

Document metadata

  • Last verified: 2026-07-04

  1. SRC-BHANDARI-ACLU — Esha Bhandari ACLU Staff Biography. Self-reported profile; corroboration pending. ↩↩↩↩↩↩↩