International and domestic human rights legal organizations have issued a letter to the State Department, the Secret Service and other officials demanding an immediate cessation of the violations of human rights committed against the peace activists lawfully in the Venezuelan Embassy.

PCJF Demands Police Stop Facilitating Mob Violence at Venezuelan Embassy

"Our client's visit to the Bible Museum turned into a Kafkaesque ordeal of humiliation, detention, interrogation and ultimately an FBI counter-terrorism investigation caused by the Museum's racist actions and false reporting," stated PCJF Executive Director Mara Verheyden-Hilliard.

The proposal to turn Metro into a private livery service for Nazis is outrageous and unconstitutional. Neither Metro nor the police should act as private security or escorts for white supremacists who choose to come to Washington, D.C.. ATU Local 689 members and Metro workers should not be required to act as their chauffeurs. Click the link to read the full statement.

With a new focus on "civility" amidst continuing attempts to criminalize protest, FAIR talks with PCJF Executive Director Mara Verheyden-Hilliard. Read more

The PCJF is suing to obtain government disclosure of documents regarding the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) and its officers’ relationships with Project Veritas, Oath Keepers and other right-wing groups who acted as proxy with the MPD to infiltrate and surveil protest groups. Read more

On the night of November 20, 2016 law enforcement unleashed specialty impact munitions, explosive grenades, chemical agents, and water cannons in freezing temperatures injuring and maiming water protectors engaged in peaceful First Amendment-protected protest activities and prayer circles. We are proud to be part of the civil team litigating this case.

The U.S. Attorney’s office “is desperate in the remaining cases to establish that people can be imprisoned not for criminal actions but rather for their association and proximity to others,” Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, a constitutional lawyer and executive director of the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund, told The Intercept. “The third category of defendants are being prosecuted based on presumed shared political views and association, specifically participation in a political march while wearing black.” Read more

Alex Rubinstein, an independent journalist who was one of the 200 people falsely arrested during the "J20" protests at the Trump inauguration, interviews PCJF Executive Director Mara Verheyden-Hilliard about the work of the PCJF, in particular how it relates to the rights of the arrested protesters and the behavior of the police.

A public records request and lawsuit by the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund confirms that the Metropolitan Police Department failed to issue dispersal warnings or orders prior to mass arrests at the Trump Inauguration. The police actions on January 20 violated laws enacted by the D.C. Council in 2005, as well as the MPD’s own Standard Operating Procedures requiring such notice prior to arrest.