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.

Charles Watts v. United States

On November 9, 2021, the Center for Constitutional Rights filed a motion for compassionate release in the Eastern District of New York on behalf of Charles Watts, a 51-year-old Black man who is...

Updated: January 5, 2023

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

The Big House Cemetery Committee, et al. v. Theresa Aigner, et al.

On April 30, 2025, residents raised in St. Helena Island, SC, filed a lawsuit against Theresa Aigner, Robert Cody Harper, and Walter Robert Harper, Jr, newcomer neighbors who have obstructed access...

Updated: June 23, 2025

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

Archilla v. Witte

Archilla v. Witte is a federal lawsuit against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials on behalf of 18 medically vulnerable people currently held in ICE’s Etowah Detention Center in...

Updated: March 7, 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

RISE St. James - The Fight to Protect Burial Sites of Enslaved People

RISE St. James, a faith-based grass-roots organization formed to advocate for racial and environmental justice in St. James, Louisiana, learned in November 2019 that graves of people enslaved on...

Updated: July 9, 2025

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

Energy Transfer Equity, et al, v. Greenpeace, Earth First! et al

In 2017, the partial owner of the Dakota Access Pipeline, Energy Transfer Equity, filed a bizarre and far-fetched lawsuit naming various environmental organizations and "Earth First!" as defendants...

Updated: October 12, 2020

Scott v. Pennsylvania Board of Probation and Parole

Scott v. PA Board of Probation and Parole is a lawsuit in the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania on behalf of six individuals serving mandatory sentences of Death By Incarceration (DBI), also known...

Updated: April 13, 2022

Belton v. Gautreaux

Belton v. Gautreaux is a federal class action lawsuit on behalf of people imprisoned at the East Baton Rouge Parish Prison in Louisiana. The lawsuit and an accompanying motion for a temporary...

Updated: April 26, 2021

Ortiz v. Orange County, N.Y.

Ortiz et al. v. Orange County, NY et al. is a federal lawsuit against Orange County in New York, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and county officials for their punitive retaliation...

Updated: June 24, 2025

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