"My driving ambition is for scholarship that remains rooted in and true to the lived experience and transformative vision of the clients, communities, and movements that have worked with me. Unmoored from the accountability that accompanies a principled praxis, legal scholarship all too often serves and perpetuates prevailing power structures."
Ramzi Kassem is a Professor of Law at the City University of New York. His writing, teaching, and legal practice all aim to contest the expressions and excesses of the sprawling U.S. security state, both domestically and abroad. Kassem’s work with his students has resulted in groundbreaking civil rights litigation challenging state surveillance, and it has led to the liberation of clients incarcerated, often for years, at Guantánamo Bay, other overseas facilities, and federal and immigration prisons. He works within various movements, including Communities United for Police Reform and Movement for Black Lives.
In addition to academic writing, Kassem’s work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Nation, The Guardian and elsewhere. Since 2009, Kassem has served as the founding director of the award-winning CLEAR project at CUNY School of Law. A proud immigrant and incorrigible New Yorker, Kassem’s full profile is here. He was recently named a Senior Policy Advisor for Immigration for the Biden White House.
The aforementioned emblematic figures were conflated into one -- that of the fighter -- and were criminalized. This Article will begin to explore how that particular process of conflation, exclusion and criminalization occurred.
The case involved three American Muslim men who were placed or kept on the No-Fly List by FBI agents for the men’s refusal to work as informants and spy on their own faith communities in violation of their religious beliefs. In conversation with one of their attorneys, these are the plaintiffs’ reflections on their journey.
What to learn more about the Freedom Scholars?
Questions about the Freedom Scholar awards can be sent to freedomscholars@caseygrants.org.
ADDITIONAL SUPPORT FOR THE FREEDOM SCHOLAR AWARDS HAS BEEN PROVIDED BY THE INATAI FOUNDATION.
