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Our Issues

CAC’s work is grounded in a careful analysis of what the Constitution actually says and how those words came to be in our founding document. We take on issues either because we believe the Supreme Court has misread an important part of the Constitution or because special interests – e.g. corporations seeking to limit environmental safeguards – are trying to move the law in a direction that does not square with text and history. Here are the major issues we are working on right now:

The Constitution and Environmental Law: Corporations and special interests have poured millions of dollars into a coordinated effort to attack environmental safeguards based on interpretations of the Constitution that cannot be squared with the document’s text and history, especially its Takings and Commerce clauses. CAC continues the path-breaking work of its predecessor organization, Community Rights Counsel, which defended the constitutionality of environmental safeguards and helped win important and surprising Supreme Court victories.

Redefining Federalism: We the people ratified the Constitution to form a national government strong enough to establish justice, provide for the common defense and general welfare, and secure the blessing of liberty. Subsequent amendments expanded the power of the federal government, shifting power away from the states. Yet recently the Supreme Court has aggressively limited federal protections for women, workers, disabled people and the environment, in a misguided attempt to protect the states. CAC’s Redefining Federalism project advances a vision of federalism that ensures states can act as the laboratories of democracy, while also allowing the federal government to address problems states cannot fully address alone.

Human and Civil Rights and the Constitution: The Reconstruction Amendments were intended give our nation what Abraham Lincoln promised at Gettysburg: a New Birth of Freedom. Unfortunately, much of their power and meaning was eviscerated in a series of egregious Supreme Court rulings in the 1870s and 1880s. These rulings are just as wrong as long-overruled opinions such as Plessy v. Ferguson, but remain on the books. Read properly, the Reconstruction Amendments provide a solid foundation for courts and the federal government to protect human and civil rights. CAC works to raise public consciousness about the importance of the Reconstruction Amendments and convince politicians and judges about the mandate these Amendments create for the advancement of civil and human rights.

Citizenship, Immigration and the Constitution: The 14^th Amendment’s Citizenship Clause is one of the Constitution’s most important and underappreciated provisions. The clause grants full United States citizenship to anyone born on American soil (with a narrow exception for children of foreign diplomats) or naturalized by the federal government. With text and history on our side, CAC defends the rights of new Americans and immigrants to this country in Congress, courts, and the media.

Corporations and the Constitution: Our Constitution never uses the term “corporations,” referring instead to protections for “persons,” “the people,” and “citizens.” Yet in recent years, the Supreme Court has in several areas given corporations more protection than individuals. If anything, it should be the opposite, and CAC shows through text and history how the Constitution demands more protection for people than corporations.

Judicial Nominations and Accountability: Their oath of office makes judges accountable to the Constitution, not a party platform or ideological agenda. CAC carries on the path-breaking work of its predecessor, Community Rights Counsel, promoting judicial accountability by reviewing the records of federal judicial nominees and by working to prevent corporations from lobbying judges at judicial junkets.