Constitutional Accountability Center Constitutional Accountability Center

Criminal Justice

Ensuring that our criminal justice system treats all in America with fairness, dignity, and equality
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Alcatraz Prison | miss_millions, Flickr

Summary

CAC works to ensure that all who interact with the criminal justice system enjoy the rights to which they are entitled and are treated with the dignity and equality promised to them by the Constitution.

Criminal Justice in Brief

Courtroom | Clyde Robinson, Flickr

On issues from policing and qualified immunity to cash bail, CAC works to redeem the promises of our Constitution — amended in the wake of the Civil War and the scourge of chattel slavery — that the law will be enforced equally for all in America.

Featured Case

Criminal Justice April 6, 2022

Vega v. Tekoh

In 2014, police officer Carlos Vega took Terrence Tekoh into a small windowless room where Tekoh worked and questioned him about a reported crime. He did not warn Tekoh about his right to remain silent or his right to an attorney, as required under the Supreme Court’s decision in Miranda v. Arizona. The statements Tekoh made were later introduced as evidence in his criminal prosecution. After the prosecution ended in an acquittal, Tekoh sued Officer Vega under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, a statute that authorizes damages actions against state and local officials for constitutional violations, alleging that Vega violated his...

Case Timeline

Current
  • CAC files amicus curiae brief

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