The laws and Constitution are designed to survive, and remain in force, in extraordinary times. -Supreme Court, June 12, 2008, Boumediene v. Bush Annual Report 2008 Our Mission The Center for Constitutional Rights is a non-profit legal and educational organization dedicated to advancing and protecting the rights guaranteed by the United States Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Founded in 1966 by attorneys who represented civil rights movements in the South, CCR is committed to the creative use of law as a positive force for social change. The cover quotation is from the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Boumediene v. Bush. See page 6 of this report for details of this historic victory for CCR, our clients at Guantánamo and for our system of checks and balances and the rule of law. Letter from the President 2 Letter from the Executive Director 4 Docket Areas Guantánamo 6 Outsourcing Violence: Holding Corporations Accountable 10 Rendition and Ghost Detentions 12 Racial, Gender and Economic Justice 14 Criminal Justice and Mass Incarceration 16 International Law and Accountablity 18 Illegal Government Surveillance 20 Attacks on Dissent 22 International Advocacy and Travel 24 2008 President’s Reception 26 Internships and Fellowships 27 Awards, News and Events 28 Publications 30 100 Days to Restore the Constitution 32 Case Index 34 Guantánamo Habeas Counsel 39 Friends and Allies 43 Our Donors 48 Financial Report 61 Board of Directors and Staff 62 In Memoriam 64 Letter from the President fter seven long years of struggle, who support this work, have our thanks and CCR finally achieved the Supreme the thanks of all those who understand the Court victory that we sought when necessity of the struggle we are engaged in Awe filed the first case on behalf to protect our liberty. of Guantánamo detainees in early 2002. In a 5-4 ruling in Boumediene v. Bush, the Court Despite our victory, the struggle to close held that Guantánamo detainees have the Guantánamo and end secret detention is constitutional right to go to a federal court not over. We are in the federal district court and challenge their detentions. The efforts of trying to have the hearings the Supreme Court the Bush administration to deny the prisoners required. If and when those hearings occur, their fundamental right of habeas corpus had I am sure that the Bush administration will failed. not have sufficient evidence to detain most of the prisoners. CCR has already begun When we filed the first Guantánamo cases, international advocacy on behalf of detainees we were treated as legal and political pariahs. likely to be released, working to ensure their No other organization would join us and the resettlement to countries where they will not hate mail piled up. We went forward in the face persecution or torture. belief that we had to do what was right, and what was right was to challenge the Bush We have also undertaken major initiatives administration’s denial of constitutional rights to roll back the privatization of war and in every possible way. In the beginning we interrogation—interrogation that often leads were few, CCR and three other attorneys; to torture. Our cases against Blackwater for but today we are many. Not only are CCR killings in Iraq and contract interrogators for lawyers constantly at Guantánamo meeting torture in Iraq are testing not just the issue with clients, but CCR also coordinates the of accountability of private armies, but the hundreds of other lawyers who courageously deeper question of whether private armies came forward as counsel on these cases. They have any place in a democracy. are heroes in this continuing fight to restore the Constitution. They, and the many of you 2 A key issue going forward is whether high recent attacks on protestors at the RNC in St. Paul. administration officials will be held responsible CCR was born out of our defense of the Southern for the torture and rendition of hundreds, if not civil rights movement and we have not forgotten the thousands, of human beings. Our efforts in U.S. importance of those struggles then and today. courts have been met with bogus assertions of state secrecy and national security. So far, the courts have Vincent Warren, our Executive Director, has been gone along with these executive claims, but we think with us for just over two years. I can brag a lot about that in at least some of these cases we will prevail – Vincent and the amazing job he has done. For now and we expect the next congress will take on this it is sufficient to say that CCR is in very good hands issue. Our efforts in Europe against Rumsfeld and and that Vincent and the entire CCR staff represent others have not yet resulted in criminal charges, a future for the Center that would make our found- but they have put the investigation and prosecution ers proud. And you, our supporters, make that future of this administration on the agenda. Former possible. administration officials visit Europe at their peril and going forward they will have much to fear. I think we will all breathe a sigh of relief when this Even a presidential pardon cannot protect them if administration is over. Our work, however, will they leave our shores. continue. Our Constitution has been badly battered; restoring it is not a job for sunshine patriots. It will Although litigation is central to our work, CCR is take the hard work of us all. We feel proud of what more than a litigation organization. We understand we have achieved in the last years, but understand that litigation is a tool for social change and to that we are only at the beginning of regaining our protect rights; and that activism, media, education lost freedoms and restoring respect for the rule of and advocacy are necessary to win in the courts. law. We appreciate your support along this difficult journey and are confident that the values for which The Center has strong dockets in many areas. We we all stand will prevail. are committed to aggressively building up our existing racial and economic justice work, as well as continuing our leadership in enforcing international human rights law. Defending dissent in this country is more important than ever, as we have seen in the Michael Ratner 3 Letter from the Executive Director his has been an extraordinary year for administration. No matter who is in office, CCR. Once again, we have worked you can count on us to continue to challenge to make the impossible possible. the detention of individuals without charge TWe pushed back as hard as we could in abusive and deplorable conditions at against gross government abuses and injustice Guantánamo and elsewhere around the globe. and have knocked the Bush administration We will work to ensure that those who are back on its heels. Our significant victory in the released are released to safety and not sent to Supreme Court through the Boumediene case more illegal detention, torture or abuse. We was extraordinary for several reasons. We were will oppose any effort by this administration successful in framing the issues broadly so that or the next to torture or justify the rendition of the Court addressed not only the legal plight of people to countries that perpetrate torture. We the men that remain in Guantánamo, but also will continue our fight against the complicity drew a clear line that was a significant step in of corporations in the perpetration of human putting presidential powers back in the constitu- rights abuses. We will continue to challenge tional box during a time of great national fear. racial profiling and the unlawful stop, arrest or detention of individuals in any context. We This case represents the fruit of six years of will continue to be a leader in combating illegal tireless work by CCR and our allies, but it is government action through a secret program also the seed we have planted to lead the of warrantless domestic surveillance and the country beyond Guantánamo and toward a targeting, infiltration and monitoring of activist just vision – one anchored in the protections organizations. And we will increase our core of the Constitution as well as the promise of work to combat racial and gender injustices the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, that have only festered and grown in the which will turn 60 this year. post-9/11 period. The last seven years have seen systematic As CCR looks to the rest of 2008, the elections attacks on civil and other human rights. This in November and a new presidential administra- year we will directly confront the legacy of tion in early 2009, it has become increasingly illegality that will be inherited by a new clear that we have a unique role to play at this 4 critical moment in our country’s history – that that we started when we filed the first habeas we must continue our decades-old work of corpus petition six years ago. We have focused on challenging government abuses, and our rich three branches of government to make things right. experience in protecting and promoting human Now is the time to focus on the fourth branch: rights, to take maximum advantage of the opportu- the people. With your support, we will continue nities presented by the change in administration and to insist that the damage be repaired in a way that the effect it will have on Congress and the judiciary. promotes a just domestic and global framework. As we move beyond Guantánamo, we will press This is a moment of celebration, promise and the new administration to renounce the executive renewed commitment.