– Vince Warren
Vince Warren is a renowned expert on racial injustice and discriminatory policing and is the executive director of the Center for Constitutional Rights. He oversees the organization’s groundbreaking litigation and advocacy work, using international and domestic law to challenge human rights abuses, including racial, gender, and LGBTQIA injustice.
Under his leadership, the Center for Constitutional Rights successfully challenged the NYPD’s stop-and-frisk policy and profiling of Muslims, ended long-term solitary confinement in California’s Pelican Bay Prison, and established the persecution of LGBTQIA people as a crime against humanity. The Center for Constitutional Rights is currently challenging the abuse of migrants at the U.S. Southern Border, the Muslim Ban, the torture of prisoners in Abu Ghraib, and the criminalization of transgender people, as well as providing legal and policy support to Black, Brown, and Native organizers across the country.
Previously, Vince monitored South Africa’s historic Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings and was a senior staff attorney at the ACLU and a criminal defense attorney for the Legal Aid Society in Brooklyn. He is a graduate of Haverford College and Rutgers School of Law.
Vince is a frequent guest on MSNBC and Democracy Now! and has appeared on Moyers & Company with Bill Moyers, CNN, and Fox News. His writing has been featured in the New York Times Room for Debate, the Guardian, the Huffington Post, and CNN.com, among other publications.
He gave the keynote speech at Yale Law School’s 2015 Rebellious Lawyering Conference, and the 2013 Clarence Clyde Ferguson, Jr. Human Rights Lecture at Howard Law School.
The Revolution Will Not Be Litigated: People Power and Legal Power in the 21st Century with Vince Warren and Contributors
October 26, 2023
Burns Chair Vince Warren, leads a panel discussion among contributors to The Revolution Will Not Be Litigated: People Power and Legal Power in the 21st Century, a collection of stories about the relationship between social movements and the law. The panel features Baher Azmy, Legal Director, Center for Constitutional Rights; Alejandra Ancheita, Founder and Executive Director of the Mexico City-based NGO ProDESC (The Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Project); Justin Hansford, Professor of Law and Executive Director of the Thurgood Marshall Civil Rights Center at Howard University School of Law; and Katie Redford, Executive Director of Equation Campaign. These lawyers and activists on the frontlines of human rights issues around the world share stories of their own and others’ struggles for social justice and how positive impact happens even in the face of resistance.
Becoming Abolitionists Book Talk with Burns Chair Vince Warren and author Derecka Purnell
April 11, 2023
Burns Chair Vince Warren and author Derecka Purnell discuss Purnell’s book, Becoming Abolitionists: Police, Protests, and the Pursuit of Freedom. Drawing from her experiences as a lawyer, writer, and organizer initially skeptical about police abolition, Purnell charts her journey to her realization that the police were a placebo. The book spans not only Purnell’s experience but also a long history of social movements rooted in rebellion and revolutionary love that pushed a generation of activists towards abolition, from Ferguson to South Africa, from Reconstruction to contemporary protests against police shootings.
The Global Fight for Queer Liberation: Resisting Persecution & Criminalization of Homosexuality in Uganda
April 3, 2023
SMUG Executive Director Frank Mugisha, in conversation with Burns Chair Vince Warren, Center for Constitutional Rights Attorney Pamela Spees ’98, and Professor Jeena Shah.
2023 Burns Chair Welcome Event: Burns Chair Vince Warren in Conversation with Janai Nelson
February 27, 2023
Burns Chair Vince Warren and Janai Nelson discuss their work as lawyers and leaders fighting against current civil rights challenges. Their wide-ranging conversation touches on transformative leadership, the impact of efforts to ban Critical Race Theory, and the role of progressive lawyers in today’s political arena at CUNY School of Law. Opening remarks are provided by Dean Sudha Setty; Jennifer Dohrn, Haywood’s life partner; and Professor Emeritus Victor Goode, Haywood’s colleague, and friend. Mr. Warren is the Executive Director of the Center of Constitutional Rights and Ms. Nelson is the President of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund.
Drop-In Hours for Faculty, Staff, Students and Organizations
January 24 and April 11, 2023
Warren hosts open hours for CUNY Law community members to get to know his work, ongoing research and projects, and ways to build community.