Thom Hartmann Conversations With Great Minds with Michael Ratner, Pres. The Center for Constitutional Rights Part 1. The Center for Constitutional Rights, which Michael Ratner leads, states that its mission it to defend civil liberties in the US. The group's efforts have included a legal challenge to the USA PATRIOT Act and a lawsuit on behalf of post-9/11 immigration detainees in the US. The Center also representated Maher Arar, a Canadian citizen who was sent, orrendered, to Syria, where he was tortured. Ratner and his office have also sued two private military contracting companies in Iraq, alleging their employees were involved in the abuses and torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib.