CENTER FOR CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS
The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) is a nonprofit legal and educational organization
dedicated to advancing and protecting the rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution and the Declaration of Human Rights. Since its forma-
tion in 1966 by attorneys working for CIVIL
RIGHTS demonstrators in the South, the CCR
has been a forceful advocate of civil rights for all
people. The New York City-based organization
seeks to halt what it describes as a steady ero-
sion of civil liberties in the United States and
elsewhere. The group addresses such areas as
international human rights, government mis-
conduct, sexual politics, indigenous peoples’
rights, nuclear and environmental hazards,
WOMEN’S RIGHTS, civil rights, FREEDOM OF THE
PRESS, racism, ELECTRONIC SURVEILLANCE,
criminal trials, AFFIRMATIVE ACTION, and abuse
of the GRAND JURY process.
Cofounded by attorneys WILLIAM M. KUN-
STLER, Morton Stavis, and others in the heady
days of 1960s social activism, the left-leaning
CCR describes itself as “committed to the cre-
ative use of law as a positive force for social
change.” As such, throughout its history, the
CCR has consistently generated legal and politi-
cal controversy. African American civil rights
leader MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. was one of the
groupâ’s first clients. And, since then, the CCR
has won favorable decisions for such diverse fig-
ures as antinuclear leaders in the Micronesian
republic of Belau and Native American protest-
ers at Wounded Knee, South Dakota.
Much of the center’s work has involved
international causes and foreign clients. In the
early 1970s, the CCR sued the U.S. government
to discover answers regarding U.S. citizens missing
in Chile and U.S. involvement in the support of Chilean leader Salvador Allende. The group
has broken ground in the battle to establish the
right to sue foreign governments or individuals
in U.S. courts. In 1986, the CCR represented the
government of President Corazon Aquino, of
the Philippines, in its fight to recover millions of
dollars in assets taken by former dictator Ferdinand
Marcos. In another case, Filartiga v. Pena-
Irala, 630 F.2d 876 (2d Cir. 1980), the
organization won a settlement of $10.4 million
for a Paraguayan boy who brought suit against
an exiled dictator of Paraguay who had ordered
the boy’s torture.
In 1998, the CCR joined forces with Greenpeace
USA and other organizations to block the
Japanese corporate giant Shintech from constructing
the largest PVC plant in the world in
St. James Parish, Louisiana. The local community
surrounding the site of the proposed plant
had a population consisting of more than 80
percent minorities, 40 percent of whom lived
below the poverty level. It also was known for its
high degree of chemical POLLUTION, so much so
that it was dubbed “Cancer Alley.” The CCR
accused the company of, among other things,
environmental racism. Shintech abandoned its
plans in late 1998. The CCR also played an
important role in the 2000 release of Palestinian
immigrant Hany Kiareldeen, who was detained
by the Immigration and Naturalization Service
(INS) for 19 months solely on the basis of secret
evidence that neither he nor his lawyers were
permitted to review.
The CCR also conducts a number of programs.
Its Movement Support Network, started
in 1984, provides aid to social activist groups,
including legal protection for groups experiencing
harassment by the FEDERAL BUREAU OF
INVESTIGATION (FBI) and other government
law enforcement agencies. The Anti-Biased Violence
Project (ABVP), established in 1991, uses
litigation and education to oppose violence
against individuals because of their race, ethnicity,
religion, gender, or sexual orientation, and
has defended ordinances that curtail hate
speech. The CCR’s ELLA BAKER Student Program
provides internships to law students. In
Greenville, Mississippi, the CCR operates the
Voting Rights Project, a community-based voting
rights litigation group that works in Mississippi,
Arkansas, and Tennessee. The CCR also
maintains a speakers’ bureau and publishes
books, pamphlets, and periodicals, the last
including Docket and the MSN News.
The CCR maintains its own staff, but also
works with many lawyers who donate their time
PRO BONO (for free). The group has previously
been called the Civil Rights Legal Defense Fund
and the Law Center for Constitutional Rights.
FURTHER READINGS
Center for Constitutional Rights. Available online at
Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR). 1994. Docket. New
York: CCR, spring.
