CENTER FOR CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS INC
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Mission Statement
The Center for Constitutional Rights stands with social justice movements and communities under threat, fusing litigation, advocacy, and strategic communications to dismantle systems of oppression regardless of the risk. We target structural racism, gender oppression, economic inequity, and governmental overreach, and work to build power where it is needed most — among communities that have been silenced, rendered invisible, or pushed to the margins. Founded in 1966 by visionary, radical lawyers working on behalf of civil rights movement activists, the Center for Constitutional Rights has established a long, singular, and audaciously successful history of movement lawyering informed by the belief that if justice is to prevail, the communities who are most affected by oppression must lead the change. And because the arc toward justice is long, we also train and mentor the next generation of constitutional and human rights attorneys through our Bertha Justice Fellows program (for emerging lawyers) and our Ella Baker Summer Internships (for law students). Topically and geographically, the Center for Constitutional Rights’ work has no boundaries. We fearlessly take on abusive immigration practices; criminalization of dissent; corporate human rights abuses; discriminatory policing; drone killings; government surveillance; Guantánamo; LGBTQI persecution; mass incarceration; Muslim profiling; racial injustice; sexual and gender-based violence; and torture, war crimes, and militarism. We focus not only on constitutional law but also on international human rights law, to which end we work in such venues as the United Nations, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, and the International Criminal Court. The Center for Constitutional Rights is currently litigating more than 50 active cases, not counting amicus filings. The Center for Constitutional Rights complements our legal strategies with a broad array of advocacy activities, including short- and long-term campaigns, policy work, trainings, arts and cultural events, and public education programs. Our alliances with communities, organizations, activists, and storytellers help to build power at the grassroots level, build bridges among groups working intersectionally, and engage advocates and activists in partnering with us to advance the causes we champion. Additionally, we deploy media and thought leadership to challenge dominant narratives, make space for the voices and experiences of those who have been silenced, and inform and shape public opinion about the issues we fight. The Center accepts no government funding, and all of our legal services are provided free of charge.
About This Cause
The law, at its best, can be used to liberate and to attain justice. Too often, however, it is used to support abuses and systems of power that violate our most fundamental rights and prevent people from living with dignity. Within the context of the Center for Constitutional Rights’ work, these abuses include unconstitutional stops or arrests, long-term solitary confinement, warrantless surveillance, racial and religious profiling, coerced informancy, immigration raids and deportations, detention quotas, lack of corporate accountability, criminalization of dissent, indefinite military detention, and torture. The Center for Constitutional Rights engages in bold legal and advocacy work to remediate these and other injustices and to serve as a catalyst for bringing about the changes we seek: dismantling the institutionalized power that subjugates vulnerable communities, and building the power of social movements that strive for justice and equality. The power structures we seek to transform are: structural racism (particularly white supremacy); structural gender oppression (including hetero-patriarchy); oppressive economic structures; and oppressive state power. Within this context, we deploy an intersectional approach, so that all the power structures in play are included in our legal and advocacy analysis and strategies, and we focus in particular on groups relegated to the margins, where dehumanization and oppression render some lives truly disposable. The Center for Constitutional Rights primarily advances these objectives through “movement lawyering” — an approach in which we partner with and legally represent motivated and organized social justice movements to support their agendas in areas where litigation can play a vital role. We center the movement’s demands at the heart of our work, and throughout the litigation process, remain accountable to those demands that align with litigation strategy. This approach, along with our strategy to dismantle the power structures that subjugate vulnerable communities and build the power of social movements, are among the key traits that distinguish the Center for Constitutional Rights from other organizations working in social justice litigation; a third such trait is our expertise in challenging oppressive power in both the public and private sectors. Collectively, these strategies have enabled the Center for Constitutional Rights to attain transformative rulings and settlements on behalf of highly marginalized groups.