Active Cases

Since 1966, CCR has pioneered daring and innovative legal strategies in pursuit of its mission to advance and protect the rights guaranteed by the United States Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Our work began on behalf of civil rights activists, and since then CCR has lent its expertise and support to virtually every popular progressive movement.

Our current cases reflects our unwavering commitment to progressive principles, people’s movements and human rights as well as our creative use of the law as a positive force for social change.

City of Grants Pass v. Johnson (Amicus)

City of Grants Pass v. Johnson is a case about the criminalization of poverty. The Supreme Court has decided whether people experiencing involuntary homelessness in a city with no safe, available...

Updated: June 28, 2024

Accountability for U.S. Torture: Spain

Actions on U.S. torture brought in Spain under the principle of universal jurisdiction.

Updated: November 13, 2019

Doe, et al. v. Nestlé USA, Inc./Cargill, Inc. (Amicus)

The U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear Doe, et al. v. Nestlé USA, Inc . and the companion case Doe, et al. v. Cargill, Inc. to decide the question of whether U.S. corporations can be held liable under...

Updated: June 17, 2021

Black Love Resists in the Rust v. City of Buffalo

In the summer of 2012, the Buffalo Police Department created a "Strike Force" Unit to aggressively patrol and conduct vehicle checkpoints in "high crime" areas of the city. While purportedly set up...

Updated: November 15, 2024

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania v. Derek Lee

This case aims to end the state of Pennsylvania’s mandatory imposition of death-by-incarceration sentences, otherwise known as life without parole, for Derek Lee and others convicted of felony murder...

Updated: October 7, 2024

Hassan v. City of New York

Challenges the NYPD’s suspicionless surveillance of Muslim Americans on the basis of their Muslim identity

Updated: March 18, 2022

Amicus Brief in Glik v. Cunniffe, et al.

CCR has submitted an amicus brief in Glik v. Cunniffe before the First Circuit Court of Appeals on behalf of Berkeley Copwatch, Communities United against Police Brutality, Justice Committee,...

Updated: September 6, 2011

Furlow v. Belmar

For many years, St. Louis and surrounding Missouri counties have permitted police officers to issue the equivalent of a statewide arrest warrant into an electronic database, designating an individual...

Updated: December 8, 2022

Al Shimari, et al. v. CACI

A challenge to corporate impunity of private military contractors under the Alien Tort Statute for war crimes and torture at Abu Ghraib prison.

Updated: May 15, 2025

K.W. v. The City of New York (Amicus Brief)

When K.W.’s son, K.A. was just six days old, New York City’s Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) separated him from his parents without court order. After his extrajudicial removal, K.A...

Updated: April 22, 2025

Doe v. Cisco Systems, Inc. (Amicus)

ATS case bringing claims that U.S. technology company Cisco Systems, Inc. aided and abetted serious human rights abuses against Falun Gong practitioners in China

Updated: January 13, 2016

Khan v. Obama / Khan v. Gates / United States v. Khan / Khan v. Biden

CCR’s representation of Guantánamo prisoner and victim of CIA torture Majid Khan.

Updated: February 2, 2023

Estate of Arturo Giron Alvarez, et al. v. The Johns Hopkins University, et al.

Amicus brief in case of Guatemalans subjected to non-consensual medical experiments between 1945 and 1956.

Updated: November 7, 2022

Tanvir v. Tanzin (formerly Tanvir v. Holder and Tanvir v. Lynch)

A federal lawsuit that challenges the FBI’s abuse of the No-Fly List to coerce law-abiding American Muslims into spying on their religious communities.

Updated: October 29, 2024

Floyd, et al. v. City of New York, et al.

A federal class action lawsuit against the City of New York that challenges the NYPD's practices of racial profiling and unconstitutional stop and frisks.

Updated: June 3, 2025

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