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.

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

Ali v. Trump

Ali v. Trump is a federal habeas corpus petition brought on behalf of Abdul Razak Ali (also known as Saeed Bakhouch), an Algerian citizen detained without charge at Guantánamo Bay since 2002. One of...

Updated: April 26, 2021

State v. Henry / State v. Allen (Jim Crow Juries)

Rufus Henry and Matthew Allen were both convicted of murder in the second degree by non-unanimous juries and sentenced to life in prison following trials in which they argued that they acted in self-...

Updated: April 22, 2021

Diamond v. Ward, et al.

Ashley Diamond is a Black trans woman and prisoners’ rights activist from Rome, Georgia, whose landmark lawsuit challenging the cruel and unusual treatment of incarcerated trans people by the Georgia...

Updated: April 22, 2021

Ashker v. Governor of California

A federal class action lawsuit challenging prolonged solitary confinement as cruel and unusual punishment.

Updated: April 9, 2021

Aref v. Garland

A due process challenge to the Communications Management Units (CMUs), two highly restrictive federal prison units that segregate certain prisoners and severely limit and control their communication...

Updated: April 7, 2021

ICE Citizens Academy FOIA

In July 2020, ICE announced it would be holding a "citizen's academy" in Chicago, Illinois where civilian invitees would be trained in various enforcement techniques used by the law enforcement...

Updated: April 5, 2021

Weaver Amicus Brief

The Center for Constitutional Rights, along with Bronx Defenders, the Legal Aid Society, NAACP-LDF, NYCLU, and the law firm of Beldock, Levine & Hoffman, filed an amicus brief in support of the...

Updated: March 9, 2021

al Qahtani v. Obama

A habeas corpus petition on behalf of the only Guantánamo detainee who the government has openly admitted was tortured.

Updated: March 8, 2021

Barhoumi v. Obama

Representing an Algerian citizen held at Guantánamo since 2002

Updated: March 5, 2021

Doe v. Hood

In 2003, in the landmark decision Lawrence v. Texas , the United States Supreme Court declared that state statutes that criminalize sodomy are unconstitutional. In its sweeping decision, the Supreme...

Updated: March 4, 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: March 4, 2021

Operation Palladium FOIA

The lawsuit seeks to compel both the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to release documents pertaining to “Operation Palladium,” an...

Updated: March 3, 2021

Al Hajj v. Trump

Sharqawi Al Hajj is a 47-year-old citizen of Yemen who has been detained without charge at Guantánamo since 2004, after over two years in CIA sites. He faces the prospect of a death sentence in...

Updated: March 3, 2021

Al Otro Lado v. Nielsen

Al Otro Lado, Inc., et al. v. Kirstjen Nielsen, et al. , is a class action lawsuit against officials at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in a...

Updated: March 3, 2021

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