We’re hiring for new positions! Justice Fellows for September 2024 through September 2026 

Our Justice Fellowship is a two-year program for emerging lawyers (0-2 years out of law school) who are interested in gaining practical experience working on cutting-edge social justice litigation and a theoretical understanding of how legal advocacy can create social change. We will host a cohort of up to four Justice Fellows, from September 2024 to September 2026.

The 2024 Justice Fellows will have an opportunity to work on a broad range of cases, issues, and projects challenging oppressive and intersecting systems of power. We are excited that one of the Center for Constitutional Rights Justice Fellows will be based in the South, working with our Southern Justice Rising team, helping to strengthen, support, and build the power of southern regional movements. For additional information on the role, including salary range and benefits, see the job posting on our website.

Qualified candidates should submit an online application. Applications will be considered on a rolling basis, and strong consideration will be given to early applications. The deadline for submission is October 20, 2023.

Board member Colette Pichon Battle honored with Heinz Award in recognition of her climate justice work 

We are thrilled to congratulate and celebrate our board member, Colette Pichon Battle, for being honored with the prestigious Heinz Award for the environment. This award recognizes her years of visionary climate justice work. Colette is the founder of Taproot Earth, and she spearheaded efforts around equitable climate disaster recovery, global migration, community economic development, and energy democracy through the Gulf Coast Center for Law & Policy, an organization she founded in 2005. 

You can read more about this recognition as well as Colette’s powerful leadership in this NOLA.com article. From the article: 

“Our role is not just about the Gulf South anymore. It's from the Gulf South to the Global South. Taproot is made for prime positioning around solutions, around power building, around community building, around thinking in new ways to address the (climate) crisis.” – Colette Pichon Battle

University of California attempts to censor pro-Palestine convening may violate Federal laws  

Last week, we joined Palestine Legal in a letter to the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC), warning them to stop trying to censor the upcoming Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism (ICSZ) convening, “Battling the ‘IHRA definition’: Theory & Activism.” ICSZ, which has as one of its points of unity that Zionism is a settler colonial project, is having its first convening of scholars and activists, aimed at combating dangerous efforts to use a distorted definition of antisemitism to silence advocacy for Palestinian rights. UCSC’s condemnation falsely implies that the convening’s goals and approach are antisemitic. The letter explains:

“Palestinians who have experienced the harms of Zionism firsthand over the course of decades of dispossession, discrimination, and military occupation, have articulated strong anti-Zionist critiques that make clear that opposition to Zionism has nothing to do with the Jewish religion or ethnicity, even if it is misperceived that way. People across the world share these critiques based on Israel’s ongoing racist colonial project.”

The letter can be read in full on Palestine Legal’s website here.

Global civil society orgs sound alarm bell to UN on impacts of U.S. counterterrorism policies around the world  

Under the leadership of the Global Network of Movement Lawyers at Movement Law Lab, we joined partners from around the world to develop an innovative global intervention as a contribution to the UN Human Rights Committee’s upcoming review of the United States under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).

The letter provides case studies from Kashmir, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, and Palestine to demonstrate how U.S. counterterrorism policies and disregard for civil and political rights is contributing to the erosion of democratic space around the world. From the letter: 

“The U.S.’ historic self-appropriated role as the “leader of the free world” has meant that as the U.S. itself backslides on its obligations to protect the civil and political rights of its people, authoritarian-leaning regimes may be emboldened to follow suit.”

You can view the full list of cosigners and read the full letter on our website here. To read about all our work regarding U.S. compliance with the ICCPR, view our resource page here.