The Partnership for Civil Justice Fund is a charitable and educational organization dedicated to the defense of human and civil rights secured by law, the protection of free speech and dissent, and the elimination of prejudice and discrimination. The Partnership for Civil Justice Fund is based in Washington, D.C. Its attorneys have served as lead counsel or co-counsel or consulted in support of constitutional rights lawsuits across the U.S.
Founded by Carl Messineo and Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, the PCJF's attorneys have litigated landmark First Amendment Rights cases. In the area of constitutional rights litigation, attorneys of the PCJF have represented hundreds of activists and political organizations (as well as those whose rights were violated simply because they associated with or were in proximity to free speech activities).
The PCJF's litigation program works alongside an equally important programmatic emphasis on education and outreach.
Our Mission
Our mission is to defend and advance fundamental civil, constitutional and human rights secured by the U.S. Constitution and under law.
Our Approach
We do not believe that civil, constitutional and human rights are negotiable or to be compromised. Where the government refuses to acknowledge or respect basic democratic rights - - including, critically, the right to engage in small and mass collective action - - we will without compromise litigate and advocate for the full recognition and enforcement of the rights secured to us all, and essential to democracy.
We believe that those who deprive others of their constitutional and civil rights must be held accountable and liable for their constitutional wrongs. This is necessary so that they, and others who might follow in their footsteps, are deterred from the constitutional violations that have grown far too frequent from ever recurring again. No remedy is comprehensive unless it works to prevent recurrence and protects the rights of all.
Making Way for Democracy
Progressive social change has never come from above. The civil rights movements, suffrage movements, anti-war movements (embraced today as "mainstream" movements, but disparaged in their time) have all been grassroots collective actions - people's movements.
With the resurgence of the social justice movement and mass anti-war movement in the U.S. the government has, in recent years, grown more overtly repressive of domestic progressive political activity. It didn't start under the Bush administration, but there is no denying that there has been a disturbing and marked movement towards reactionary government policies in general, and an overt return to the use of federal and local "law enforcement" resources to infiltrate, target and disrupt progressive organizing and action.
In city after city, including repeatedly in Washington, D.C., government has engaged in preemptive disruptive attacks and mass false arrests of persons believed to be protestors or who happen to be in physical proximity to free speech activity. The Partnership for Civil Justice Fund is advancing constitutional rights litigation in Washington, D.C.(including two class actions), New York City (where we are fighting to stop the corporate privatization of Central Park and open it to the people for mass free speech activities), and Miami, Florida (where we are part of the NLG Mass Defense legal team litigating from the FTAA protests). We've succeeded in overturning the unconstitutional system that the City of Philadelphia had used for years to try to prevent and disrupt groups with disfavored political opinions from collective action, marches and demonstrations and, as you can see from the Litigation page of our site, we've had many other victories along the way.
The focus of our Campaign to Defend the First Amendment is to, literally, make way for democracy in the streets, the parklands and on the sidewalks. These are public forums that belong to all of us and that have historically been reserved to the public for free speech activities, but that are now threatened in an alarmingly systematic manner, particularly for groups engaged in vigorous dissent of existing social and economic and military policies. These are the assembly sites, the launching pads, and the speakers platforms for social change and progress.
Acting in Solidarity with the People of the World
In addition to supporting those who are taking to the streets to bring an end to the criminal war and occupation of Iraq, the Partnership for Civil Justice is defending humanitarians who stepped forward to challenge the lethal sanctions and blockades that the U.S. imposes which target civilian populations in order to achieve strategic and political goals. We have invoked international law in the defense of Voices in the Wilderness, which ran the Iraqi sanctions blockade in order to deliver medical supplies desperately needed by the sick and dying children and civilians of that nation.
Defending Targeted Communities
Working with communities, including the Arab and Muslim community, which have been particularly targeted and terrorized in the past three years with raids, home invasions, interrogations and arrests, the PCJ has sought to provide both legal support and Know Your Rights educational information.
Working With the Community in Washington, D.C.
We are based in Washington, D.C., and as a member of that community have ensured that our work is also local, as well as national and international in focus. When the Mayor's Office took steps to close down the only public hospital in the District, religious, community and labor leaders turned to the Partnership, which filed an amicus curiae brief in federal court opposing the closure. When local housing activists turned to the PCJ for legal representation when the government sought to interfere with the return of abandoned housing stock to the community, PCJ stepped in to stop the government from eviction at a community rehabilitated house.
The Future
As we look to the future, the Partnership will continue to be at the forefront of legal struggle, using the law to defend and create room for the peoples' movement for progressive social change. As we challenge repression and civil rights violations as they arise, and proactively work to prevent constitutional rights violations, we shall continue to advance and protect the fundamental rights that we all share and that are essential to the unfinished struggle towards ending exploitation and bigotry and achieving social and economic justice.
We need your help to carry out this work. Please consider supporting this work today by clicking here.
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