About CLDC

CLDC history

A group of environmental and social justice activists and attorneys founded the Civil Liberties Defense Center in 2003 to meet critical legal needs within the progressive change movement in the Pacific Northwest. The Civil Liberties Defense Center challenges government policies that restrict the rights of citizens; represents individual environmental and social activists; empowers defendants to participate in their own legal proceedings; and trains citizens in understanding their legal rights. Since its founding, CLDC has given an average of forty "Know Your Rights" trainings each year. Each of these trainings focuses on citizens' rights in dealing with police and the criminal justice system, but also includes responses to ad hoc questions from the audience about civil lawsuits, using the Freedom of Information Act, and similar subjects.

History is always in the making... More to come