Historic 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.

Many of the Center’s historic victories have established major legal precedents – from Filártiga v. Peña-Irala, which opened U.S. courts for victims of serious human rights violations from anywhere in the world to Rasul v. Bush, which established the right of Guantánamo detainees to challenge their detention.

Haiti: IACHR

The Center for Constitutional Rights has long stood in solidarity with popular and democratic movements in Haiti to address the undemocratic forces at play there and the interests in the United...

Updated: August 23, 2011

Ragbir v. Holder (Amicus)

The Board of Immigration Appeals (“BIA”) held the petitioner, Mr. Ragbir, removable from the United States by applying a narrow evidentiary standard that the Supreme Court later rejected...

Updated: August 5, 2011

Rasul v. Rumsfeld

A case brought by four former Guantanamo prisoners against former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld seeking damages for their arbitrary detention and torture.

Updated: July 11, 2011

Walton v. NYSDOCS

A class action lawsuit that challenged New York State’s monopoly telephone contract with MCI/Verizon that forced family members and friends of prisoners to pay exorbitant collect calling rates to...

Updated: June 27, 2011

Local 1330, United States Steelworkers of America v. U.S. Steel (amicus)

Local 1330 of the United States Steelworkers filed a lawsuit in federal court to save 3,500 jeopardized jobs by keeping open four large steel mills in Youngstown, Ohio.

Updated: March 2, 2011

NLG and CCR v. Gene M. Johnson, et al

The Jailhouse Lawyer's Handbook explains to prisoners how they can exercise their Constitutional rights to protect themselves from physical abuse, poor conditions and other mistreatment, specifically...

Updated: March 1, 2011

State of Louisiana v. Wallace (New Orleans First Appearances)

CCR filed an amicus brief to the Louisiana Supreme Court in State of Lousiana v. Wallace, 200-KK-1621. The amicus was the result of a campaign and survey coordinated by CCR to observe every New...

Updated: August 5, 2010

Juvenile Life Without Parole (Amicus Brief)

CCR joined as an amicus in Graham v. Florida and Sullivan v. Florida , two cases that will evaluate how the Eighth Amendment’s clause on cruel and unusual punishment applies to sentencing...

Updated: June 28, 2010

New Orleans Housing and Human Rights

The Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living, and on the right to non-discrimination in this context, undertook an official visit to the...

Updated: February 19, 2010

Abdullah, et al. v. Local 46, et al.

In April 1999, the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) filed a case on behalf of 40 plaintiffs charging the Metal Lathers Local 46 Union with discrimination that violated Title VII and the Civil...

Updated: January 25, 2010

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