Center for Individual Rights  The Center for Individual Rights (CIR) is a non-profit public interest law firm in the United States. Based in Washington, D.C., the firm is "dedicated to the defense of individual liberties against the increasingly aggressive and unchecked authority of federal and state governments". The Center is officially nonpartisan. Its work focuses on enforcement of constitutional limits on state and federal power, primarily through litigation. CIR's primary focus for most of its existence has been challenges to what it regards as unconstitutional or unlawful preferences based on race, sex, or another protected status. It has represented members of many races but is best known for challenging programs favoring minorities over non-minorities, often called "affirmative action". Another major focus for CIR is free speech. It has represented individuals and groups, often in university environments, challenging attempts to interfere with speech deemed "politically incorrect". A third focus has been federalism, the attempt to prevent Congress from legislating beyond the powers provided to it in the Constitution. CIR was incorporated in November 1988 and began operations in April 1989. Its name was chosen to underscore that its objective would be to defend individual liberties, broadly understood to encompass both civil and economic rights. Its founders, Michael McDonald and Michael Greve had previously worked together at the conservative Washington Legal Foundation. McDonald, an attorney, specialized in First Amendment litigation. wrote on environmental issues and assisted with WLF's fundraising. CIR involves itself almost exclusively in litigation. It does not lobby Congress nor involve itself it the regulatory process. It does not have a large membership base to influence legislation or engage in fundraising. It has, however, aligned itself with several referendum movements to end State use of racial preferences. From the outset, CIR specialized in a small number of areas of litigation: free speech and civil rights being the two most important. Unlike traditional liberal groups, CIR found its niche primarily in challenging racial preferences in favor of minorities also called affirmative action, government regulation, unconstitutional state action, and other similar entanglements. Like its more avowedly liberal counterparts, CIR provides free legal representation to clients who cannot otherwise afford or obtain legal counsel and whose individual rights are threatened. It is funded primarily from individuals and foundations who favor its goals. CIR's primary focus has been on Civil Rights cases and First Amendment cases involving Freedom of Religion and Free Speech. It has also been involved in several cases involving federalism. For a relatively small organization in existence for only two decades, it has had quite a number of landmark cases, including a number that have reached the US Supreme Court.