Founded on 1966, the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) began its work on behalf of civil rights activists, and, over the last four decades, has lent its expertise and support to virtually every popular movement for social justice. We use daring and innovative legal strategies which have produced many important precedents. CCR is often “ahead of the curve” in both identifying a problem and in
suggesting novel or radical legal responses which, over time, become accepted and respected precedents and theories. CCR accepts cases and projects based on principle and the value of the struggle itself, not solely by using a calculus of victory. There are cases which CCR has worked on tenaciously for decades before success was achieved, yet we stood by the cause and the client. We will continue to take these types of cases because justice demands it. As we look to the future, CCR will continue to be at the forefront of legal thinking, using the law creatively in the service of justice. Through our human rights work, we will strengthen the international rule of law to promote justice and oppose armed and other forms of aggression. Through our racial justice work, we will strive to complete the unfinished civil rights movement, targeting racial profiling and other modern-day manifestations of racial repression. We are dedicated to restoring the fundamental right to habeas corpus and will continue to combat the illegal expansion of executive power and the American torture programs that have undermined fundamental rights in the name of the so-called “war on terror.”
History has repeatedly taught us that the hard-won victories of yesterday can never be taken for granted. As society changes, new threats to our rights arise, even as old ones are defeated. CCR will continue defending progressive movements for social change and devising new strategies to ensure that fundamental rights are the rights of the many and not just the few.
