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Hi John,

Since I last wrote to you, there have been even more stunning revelations about Justice Thomas’s undisclosed financial gain resulting from his friendship with billionaire Harlan Crow. The list of ethical lapses keeps growing, most recently with the news that Mr. Crow paid the private school tuition of Thomas’s family member. ProPublica’s reporting has exposed a cancer that must be cured – the consequences of inaction are the further diminishment of trust in our democracy, trust that is already badly damaged by recent court decisions.

In response, we have been unrelenting in our call for Justice Thomas to resign . Our campaign calling out this outrageous ethical scandal is in full swing and includes a digital ad campaign in the Washington Post, a press conference [[link removed]] we organized with Center for Popular Democracy Action ahead of the “ Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing on Supreme Court Ethics Reform,” and ongoing conversations with members of Congress in which we encourage an investigation into these corrupt behaviors on the Court. My Democracy Docket piece titled “How Can We Trust a Court That Doesn’t Care to Be Independent?” [[link removed]] lays out our broader argument on Supreme Court ethics as we make the case for the need for Thomas to resign. And we have a lot more planned in the coming weeks to lift this issue up among the public and decision makers.

As long as this blight on the Court exists, we will keep fighting to ensure a judiciary that serves all of us, not just the wealthy and privileged. We know we are lucky to have all of you on our team -- thank you for your dedication to building power, transforming our courts, and securing justice for all.

Yours in the fight,
Rakim

Sign our Justice Thomas Resign petition. [[link removed]]
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Federal Courts

Stylized graphic of the Capitol dome [[link removed]] With nearly 100 vacancies left to be filled by the end of 2024, there is no time to waste! That is why AFJ is calling on Chair Durbin to reform or eliminate the blue slip [[link removed]] . The Senate must adopt a greater sense of urgency when it comes to confirming historically diverse nominees to balance the bench.

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AFJ’s new resource hub [[link removed]] on the blue slip explains the practice’s history, its modern status as a tool of obstruction being deployed to deny the White House nominees and block highly qualified nominees from moving forward. Ultimately, the goal of blue slip obstruction is to leave vacancies to be filled by more right-wing champions of the wealthy and powerful in the future.

An image of a uterus made up of pills, with a demonstration in the background [[link removed]] Please join us on Wednesday, May 31 at 11:00am ET for a conversation featuring NARAL President Mini Timmaraju and Alliance for Justice President Rakim Brooks. The conversation will be hosted on Twitter Spaces, which will be accessible via this link. [[link removed]] They will discuss mifepristone, updates on the Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. FDA case, and how the reproductive rights movement is responding to attacks on abortion access and reproductive health care broadly.

You don’t need a Twitter account to join us May 31, but Twitter users can sign up for a reminder here. [[link removed]]

State Courts
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Wisconsin captured the nation’s attention earlier this year, but today is Pennsylvania’s primary election. A variety of statewide offices are up for election this year, and the primary is a critical first step in determining who will appear on the November ballot. There are candidates up for election on nearly every level of the state’s judiciary. These state courts have an outsized impact on congressional representation, access to clean air and water, workplace protections, education, and more.
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A clear example of this power is in North Carolina. Late last year, the state supreme court struck down gerrymandered congressional maps [[link removed]] and blocked a racially discriminatory voter ID law [[link removed]] . However, once two new justices joined the court, the North Carolina Supreme Court decided to re-hear the cases in March. Earlier this month, the court reversed [[link removed]] the very decisions they delivered in December 2022, effectively rolling back North Carolinians’ access to the ballot and right to fair representation.

Latest Resources from Bolder Advocacy
[link removed] [[link removed]] Say hello to the Project Grant Rule (PGR) hub [[link removed]] – your nonprofit’s secret weapon for advocacy funding. With explainer videos, factsheets, and budget templates, private foundations and their grantees can navigate the legal requirements to maximize their use of the project grant rule.

Bolder Advocacy is here to support nonprofits and activists in their missions, whether it’s calling for the impeachment of Clarence Thomas [[link removed]] , advocating for bail reform [[link removed]] , or celebrating Star Wars Day with a lobbying twist [[link removed]] .

[link removed] [[link removed]] In partnership with the Democracy Capacity Project, we’ve released two new Practical Guidance State Lobbying resources for Delaware [[link removed]] and Iowa [[link removed]] , with more on the way!

[link removed] [[link removed]] Don’t miss the latest episodes of our Rules of the Game podcast [[link removed]] , featuring discussions on how to become a nonprofit detective [[link removed]] and planning for politically motivated attacks [[link removed]] .
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Zachery Morris
Deputy Legal Director
for State Courts

“The vast majority of cases in the country are filed in state courts, and many of our state constitutions articulate rights and protections that are more expansive than the
U.S. Constitution."

When AFJ’s Deputy Legal Director for State Courts Zachery Morris joined the organization’s State Court Justice Project [[link removed]] in the summer of 2022, he didn’t see it as a departure from his previous work litigating vital civil rights and government accountability cases.

“Most recently, as a litigator at the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and at American Oversight, I was starting to delve increasingly into state courts work—both in federal litigation about state court elections and in state court litigation, and I witnessed firsthand the ways in which state courts have often been bypassed when it comes to civil rights efforts,” Zac said.
“For me, this is a direct continuation of the work that I’ve already been doing for years and feels incredibly urgent as our state courts are frequently the final arbiters for a spectrum of fundamental rights.”

Read our full profile of Zac. [[link removed]]
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