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Current Cases

CAC chooses the best cases to bring our ideas about the Constitution into court and secure victories in the U.S. Supreme Court, state supreme courts, and federal courts of appeal that move the law closer to text and history. Click the links below to read a summary of the cases and to view our briefs (PDF) and supporting materials.

Delbert Williamson v. Mazda Motor of America, Inc.: On August 6, 2010, CAC filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Supreme Court in Williamson v. Mazda Motor, an important case concerning the ability of consumers to hold motor vehicle manufacturers liable for safety defects. In the case, the Supreme Court will revisit the doctrine of “implied preemption,” last applied by the Court in Wyeth v. Levine.

Muhammad Shabazz Farrakhan, et.al., v. Christine O. Gregoire, et.al.: On June 11, 2010, CAC filed an amicus curiae brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in Farrakhan v. Gregoire. Our brief argues that the text and history of the Fifteenth Amendment give Congress broad power to proscribe racial discrimination in voting, including felon disenfranchisement laws that operate in tandem with racial discrimination in the criminal justice system to discriminatorily deny the vote to African Americans.   

Guggenheim v. City of Goleta, et. al.: On May 15, 2010, CAC filed a brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to push back against an unprecedented expansion of property rights under the Fifth Amendment’'s guarantee against uncompensated “takings” of private property.  The case involves a suit brought by the Guggenheims against the City of Goletan in which the Guggenheims claim that a rent control ordinance on the mobile home park they own is an unconstitutional “taking” of their property in that it prevents them from extracting the maximum profits from the park.

Rent-A-Center West, Inc. v. Antonio Jackson: On April 1, 2010, CAC and a coalition of civil rights organizations—the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, the Alliance for Justice, the Asian American Justice Center, the National Partnership for Women and Families, and the National Women’s Law Center— filed a brief on behalf of Antonio Jackson. The brief urges the Supreme Court to ensure that civil rights claimants have access to federal courts unless the claimants have meaningfully agreed to have their claims heard by a private arbitrator.

McDonald v. City of Chicago: On July 11, 2009, Constitutional Accountability Center filed a brief in the Supreme Court asking the Court to review a case presenting the issue of whether—and, if so, how—the Constitution protects against state infringement of the individual right to keep and bear arms recognized by the Court last year in District of Columbia v. Heller.

California v. EPA: CAC filed a brief in California v. EPA on November 24, 2008 in the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit on behalf of a coalition of prominent State and local government organizations to support California’s efforts to enforce its first-in-the-nation greenhouse gas emissions standards for automobiles.