Fireside Chat with Wolfgang Kaleck

This Friday, January 25, the Center for Constitutional Rights will host a fireside chat with renowned human rights secretary for the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights in Berlin, Wolfgang Kaleck. Center for Constitutional Rights Legal Director Baher Azmy will talk with Kaleck about his human rights work and his new book, Law Versus Power: Our Global Fight for Human Rights, which recounts his worldwide efforts to protect human rights. Kaleck has represented whistleblower Edward Snowden, stood with mothers of children "disappeared" under the Argentinian military dictatorship in Buenos Aires, put together a torture case against the Assad government in Syria, and worked with us here at the Center for Constitutional Rights seeking accountability against George W. Bush administration officials, including Donald Rumsfeld, for post-9/11 "enhanced interrogation." Come hear about his remarkable life and work this Friday, January 25, at 6:00 p.m. at Von Bar, 3 Bleecker Street in New York City. Event page here.

Photo credit: Nihad Nino Pusija [CC BY-SA 3.0 de (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/de/deed.en)], via Wikimedia Commons

Pack the Court

On Tuesday, January 29, at 10:00 a.m., a federal court in Washington, D.C., will hold a status conference in Aref v. Holder, our longstanding case challenging the Federal Bureau of Prisons' (BOP) Communications Management Units (CMUs). Senior Staff Attorney Rachel Meeropol will urge the court to decide whether the BOP violated the Constitution when it designated CCR clients Kifah Jayyousi and Yassin Aref to the CMU without procedural protections. CMUs are discriminatory prison units, housing primarily Muslim and political prisoners, that severely restrict prisoner communications with the outside world. Please come show your support! The hearing will be at the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Courtroom 19. More details here.

Korematsu Day of Civil Liberties

On this day commemorating Martin Luther King, Jr., we are reminded not only of his great efforts, but of so many who have fought for civil rights, before and after him. Later this month, we will honor one of the greatest civil rights activists of the 20^th century. The Center for Constitutional Rights is proud to be a co-sponsor of the second annual Fred T. Korematsu Day of Civil Liberties in New York City, on Wednesday, January 30, 2019. The event will commemorate the 100^th birthday of civil rights activist Fred Korematsu, the plaintiff in the 1944 Supreme Court case Korematsu v. United States, the now-discredited ruling upholding the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. Members of the Asian American Bar Association of New York will perform a reenactment of the legal proceedings in the case and, along with narration and historic documents and photographs, tell the story of Fred's fight for justice. The event will be held at the New York County Lawyers Association, Andrew Hamilton Hall, from 6:30 to 9:00 p.m. Please join! Register here.

ICYMI: Podcast, Episode 10

The Activist Files Episode 10: "Up close and personal with Guantánamo" is now available. Center for Constitutional Rights Advocacy Program Manager Aliya Hussain interviews two of our Guantánamo attorneys, Shayana Kadidal and Wells Dixon, to learn what it's like to visit Guantánamo. Listen here.