Hi John,

With your support, AFJ is busier than ever as the country heads into what will be one of the most momentous election years of our lifetimes. Thank you for being a part of the community that makes our work possible. To begin our year, I’m excited to share news and updates: 

On January 9, we launched our new website, the result of months of hard work by our communications team. Bringing cohesion to the AFJ brand and message, the site amplifies our critical judicial research and nonprofit advocacy resources.  Please look and tell us what you think! 

As of January 10, the Biden Administration swiftly renominated 22 candidates to the federal bench and already announced six new judicial nominees, including a civil rights lawyer and two history-making picks! Alliance for Justice applauds the administration for moving quickly as they set the stage for a significant push – aiming to surpass the prior administration's record with 66 more judicial confirmations needed in 2024. Kicking off the year by backing 28 judicial nominees lays the groundwork to get us more than a third of the way to our goal. 

Notable renominations include Nicole Berner, the first openly LGBTQ+ judge for the Fourth Circuit; Adeel Mangi, the first Muslim federal appellate court judge; and Judge Mustafa T. Kashubhai, potentially the first Muslim judge on Oregon’s federal district court. Both Professor Berner and Judge Kasubhai bring crucial expertise in labor law to address its underrepresentation in the federal judiciary. 

As they did in past years, state supreme courts are demonstrating the outsized impact they have on our elections, our rights, and our democracy. In a 4-3 vote, the Colorado Supreme Court disqualified former president Trump from appearing on the state’s presidential ballot due to the insurrection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, making it the first state supreme court in the country to do so. The Trump campaign has since appealed the decision to the United State Supreme Court. Similar litigation is currently pending in Florida, Illinois, Louisiana, Massachusetts, North Carolina, and Oregon; and the supreme courts of Minnesota and Michigan have already rejected efforts to block the campaign from the ballots in those states. 

Alliance for Justice's Bolder Advocacy program, in partnership with The Democracy Capacity Project, rounded out 2023 by putting the finishing touches on our Practical Guidance – Nonprofit Lobbying series. This one-of-a-kind resource ensures that advocates in all 50 states and the District of Columbia can easily navigate state and local policies as they lobby lawmakers, governors, and other government actors.  

Lobbying is such an essential opportunity for nonprofits to improve the lives of their communities, and with states becoming bigger battlegrounds for so many issues as election season approaches, this resource comes at a crucial time. It’s free, and publicly available on both the Bolder Advocacy and Democracy Capacity Project websites, and organizations are already putting it to use!  

In 2023, BA held over 300 workshops, answered nearly 800 Technical Assistance hotline questions, supported over 2,000 nonprofit organizations and emboldened the work of over 6,500 nonprofit advocates. Earlier in 2023, Bolder Advocacy launched the Project Grant Rule Hub to help foundations learn how to support advocacy (up to and including lobbying) in their grantmaking. Funders that want to support advocacy, now have the resources and understanding to do so. 

Our spotlighted member for December and January is Texas Watch. In case you missed it, our Member Spotlight for October and November was Gender Justice. 

Professor Emeritus of Law

"AFJ’s work promoting the rule of law in general, and its focus on the quality of the judiciary and the nomination process in particular, is so very important."

When did you first start supporting AFJ, and why? 

Nan Aron and I met in college and are long-time friends, so I have been aware of AFJ’s work for more than a generation. AFJ’s work promoting the rule of law in general, and its focus on the quality of the judiciary and the nomination process in particular, is so very important. AFJ has been an incredibly important voice for decades, and I’ve been pleased to support them, both financially and by working with them on a couple of written projects.

Is there a part of AFJ’s work that you feel most strongly about? If you had to tell someone to support AFJ, what would you say? 

The counter-revolution engineered by the Federalist Society and its allies has had such a pervasive effect on so many areas of our lives—reproductive rights, equal protection of minority communities, worker’s rights to organize, environmental regulation, immigration—that it’s hard to prioritize any individual area that moves me the most.  

Read more.

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