Center for Constitutional Rights

Part one of our Black August series! Since 1979, August has been commemorated as “Black August”, a period to honor the freedom fighters, especially those inside the walls of our sprawling prison-industrial complex, who, with their vision, tenacity, and deep love for our communities, are leading us toward the horizon of abolition. Black August is a mandate to study, fast, train, and fight.

Ferguson changed the national conversation about race and led to numerous policing reforms at the state level. Grassroots groups across the country, like Communities United for Police Reform, led historic defund and budget justice campaigns – calling for real public safety through investment in infrastructure and community safety solutions and reducing the reliance on police and criminalization. The movement born in Ferguson lives on and continues to organize in the face of repressive and brutal tactics, including surveillance from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Bureau of Investigation of Movement for Black Lives protesters. Newly released documents reveal the broad surveillance of Stop Cop City activists by the Atlanta police, part of a multiyear crackdown that includes the killing of an unarmed protester. In Atlanta and elsewhere, activists fighting police violence see a link between their struggle and Palestinians’ fight for liberation. The link is more than moral: U.S. law enforcement from across the country train and have been trained by their Israeli counterparts, experts in maintaining a system of racist domination. Read more on our website: https://lnkd.in/e89guH5J

We submitted a FOIA request demanding transparency from University of Minnesota for withdrawing a job offer to Jewish genocide scholar Raz Segal who concluded Israel’s assault on Gaza is a genocide. On June 5, the University had selected Professor Raz Segal to direct the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies but five days later withdrew the offer due to backlash. Targeting schools, hospitals, refugee camps, houses of worship, apartment buildings, and infrastructure, Israel has killed nearly 40,000 Palestinians, injured more than 90,000, forcibly displaced 2 million, and pushed large segments of Gaza into famine. More here: https://lnkd.in/eTQkXJci

📣HUGE WIN: We join The Descendants Project in celebrating Greenfield's announcement that it has canceled plans for its grain elevator. Read more about the decision here: https://lnkd.in/e55VXzKs Communities like Wallace, a historically Black rural community in Louisiana, deserve to live free of the dust and pollution that a grain elevator would bring. "We've fought for three long years to save the community, way of life, and heritage we love. Now the real work begins. We look forward to working with the community to heal, preserve, and build a healthy, bright future together," The Descendants Project shared. The grain terminal would have followed a common, racist pattern of hazardous industrial facilities placed in or near Black communities. People who live in communities with toxic air pollution, which are disproportionately Black, suffer higher rates of cancer & other diseases. We have represented The Descendants Project since 2021, when we filed suit to declare a decades-old rezoning ordinance null and void and order St. John the Baptist Parish to remove it from all of its maps and records. More on our website: https://lnkd.in/eUsNfy4v.

By rescinding the plea deals, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin is “bowing to political pressure and pushing some victim family members over an emotional cliff” Senior Staff Attorney Wells Dixon tells AP News.

The rules for military commissions protect the decision-maker from outside pressure and list valid reasons to cancel a plea deal. Senior Staff Attorney Wells Dixon tells The Atlantic "the agreement is politically toxic" is not a legitimate reason for voiding such an agreement.

We are excited to partner with The Promise of Justice Initiative to host a film screening of the documentary "Plantations and Prisons: A History of Forced Labor" at Cafe Istanbul in New Orleans, LA on August 14! The film will be followed by a panel discussion about plantation prisons and other practices of forced prison labor, growing advocacy to abolish these systems including the litigation Stanley v. Ivey and VOTE v. LeBlanc, as well as anti-Black and environmental racism in the South. This program is part of our annual recognition of Black August: a month-long commemoration dedicated to paying homage to fallen Black revolutionaries, incarcerated freedom fighters, and the Black liberation struggle, historical and ongoing. RSVP: https://lnkd.in/ecCehwVY

We filed a Freedom of Information Act request seeking all internal communications of the Biden administration related to the ICC investigation into crimes committed by the Israeli government during its war on Gaza and, specifically, the administration's pressure campaigns against the new Labour government in the United Kingdom to block accountability at The Hague-based court. More here: https://lnkd.in/eKRig2-v

After years of advocacy, 27 Cameroonian asylum seekers who were unjustly deported by the Trump administration have returned to the United States. MORE: https://lnkd.in/eQU-GtJq Prior to the Cameroonians’ deportations, ICE officials prevented many from accessing their luggage, which held sensitive asylum documents, leading to their discovery by Cameroonian authorities. Their return was granted for humanitarian purposes after they experienced serious harm in Cameroon after their deportation from the U.S. in 2020 due to this asylum confidentiality violation, including torture and other physical abuse and arbitrary detention. The asylum seekers had also experienced abuses in U.S. immigration detention, including the use of excessive force, painful full-body restraints, solitary confinement, racial discrimination, and medical neglect. Two returned individuals are Plaintiffs in CCR's pending Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) litigation. It should not have taken four years for the U.S. government to remedy its error and more needs to be done to address abuse of Black migrants in immigration detention and end deportations.

MONDAY! We're thrilled to invite you to the Birmingham screening of the Emmy-winning film Lowndes County and the Road to Black Power, followed by a powerful discussion with both veteran and contemporary Southern organizers, as well as the film’s producer. RSVP: https://lnkd.in/eZeFaR-f 📅 Date: Monday, July 15, 2024 🕒 Time: 7:00pm - 9:30pm. Doors at 6:30. 📍 Location: Sidewalk Cinema, Birmingham, AL 35203 This event, hosted by the Center for Constitutional Rights, Greater-Birmingham Alliance to Stop Pollution, Greater Birmingham Ministries, and People's Budget Birmingham, is FREE and open to the public. However, space is limited, so make sure to register to secure your spot! Panel Discussion Includes: - Reverend Wendell Paris, former SNCC field secretary - Jilisa Milton, Co-Director at Greater-Birmingham Alliance to Stop Pollution - Anya Rous, Producer at Multitude Films - Gabriel Cabán Cubero, Executive Director at People’s Budget Birmingham For questions about access needs, email events@ccrjustice.org.