CCR uses litigation proactively to advance the law in a positive
direction, to empower poor communities and communities of color, to
guarantee the rights of those with the fewest protections and least
access to legal resources, to train the next generation of
constitutional and human rights attorneys, and to strengthen the
broader movement for constitutional and human rights. Our work began on
behalf of civil rights activists, and over the last four decades CCR
has lent its expertise and support to virtually every popular movement
for social justice.
Since our founding, CCR has provided legal skills in a unique and
effective manner and always with a progressive perspective. We use
daring and innovative legal strategies which have produced many
important precedents. CCR is often “ahead of the curve” in both
identifying a problem and in suggesting novel or radical legal
responses which, over time, become accepted and respected precedents
and theories.
CCR accepts cases and projects based on principle and the value of the
struggle itself, not solely by using a calculus of victory. There are
cases which CCR has worked on tenaciously for decades before success
was achieved, yet we stood by the cause and the client. We will
continue to take these types of cases because justice demands it.
As we look to the future, CCR will continue to be at the forefront of
legal thinking, using the law creatively in the service of justice.
Through our human rights work, we will strengthen the international
rule of law to promote justice and oppose armed and other forms of
aggression.
Through our racial justice work, we will strive to complete the
unfinished civil rights movement, targeting racial profiling and other
modern-day manifestations of racial repression.We are dedicated to restoring the fundamental right to habeas corpus
and will continue to combat the illegal expansion of executive power
and the American torture programs that have undermined fundamental
rights in the name of the so-called “war on terror.”
History has repeatedly taught us that the hard-won victories of
yesterday can never be taken for granted. As society changes, new
threats to our rights arise, even as old ones are defeated. CCR will
continue defending progressive movements for social change and devising
new strategies to ensure that fundamental rights are the rights of the
many and not just the few.
