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organization based in . During the 1970s, the Center for Constitutional Rights brought and won the case ''Monell v. Department of Social Services'', which enabled private individuals and civil rights groups to enforce the Constitution in court.

The Center, originally the Law Center for Constitutional Rights, developed when lawyers representing American Civil Rights Movement activists in Mississippi saw a need for a privately funded legal center to support proactive litigation. These founding lawyers were Morton Stavis, Arthur Kinoy, Ben Smith and William Kunstler . The CCR continued their tradition of representing rights activists, and was involved in a variety of landmark and famous cases:
  • Founder William Kunstler and co-counsel Leonard Weinglass played a leading role in the case of the Chicago 7 (8) , and were themselves charged with 38 counts of contempt for their "vigorous defense".

  • In 1972, ''United States v. United States District Court'' the Court unanimously declared that engaging in domestic electronic surveillance without a warrant is Unconstitutional .

  • The 1979 decision in ''Filártiga v. Peña-Irala'', using the then-obscure Alien Tort Claims Act (ATCA) of 1789, opened the U.S. courts for victims of human rights crimes to bring suit against perpetrators from anywhere.

  • By working through the courts with the government of the Philippines, CCR achieved a ruling to allow the potentially illegal assets of Ferdinand Marcos to be frozen until a court could adjudiciate the case in ''Republic of the Philippines v. Marcos''.

  • In 1999, continuing a series of clashes with U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno , CCR secured the release of Hany Kiareldeen in a precedent-setting case on the use of secret evidence in deportation trials.


The CCR has been active in a wide range of fields, from providing advocacy to U.S. servicemen during the Vietnam Conflict to government corruption in Puerto Rico and the Universal Declaration Of Human Rights . Recently the CCR has filed lawsuits on behalf of prisoners detained at Guantanamo Bay and sought criminal investigation in Germany of U.S. Officials, notably United States Secretary Of Defense Donald Rumsfeld , for War Crimes in the Abu Ghraib Prison .


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