Hello —
Big news: Today we’re writing a whole new playbook for selecting progressive justices — one that’s long overdue. Here's the backstory: For decades, the GOP has worked to create an America that benefits the rich and powerful while turning back the clock on rights for women, people of color, and LGBTQ folks. They knew that, to succeed, they would need to do more than win elections — they would need to pack the courts with far-right, corporate judges. So for the past 30 years, the GOP has slowly but surely hijacked the courts to become a hyper-partisan, reliably conservative branch of government.
Since his first day in office, Donald Trump has followed a turbocharged version of this plan. His shortlist for Supreme Court candidates was handpicked and vetted by the Federalist Society — an organization whose sole mission is to pack the court with right-wing ideologues gunning to roll back your civil rights.
That’s how we got here: our courts are now packed with conservative judges committed to making the system work for the rich and the powerful and against everyone else. So it’s time for progressives to write our own federal courts story. One that includes public interest lawyers, plaintiffs' lawyers, public defenders, and progressive academics. People like consumer advocate and Congresswoman Katie Porter, The New Jim Crow author Michelle Alexander, and Cecillia Wang of the ACLU, who led the charge to overturn Trump’s Muslim ban. Imagine having the former head of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund on the Court when Republican justices try to gut protections for voting rights, or having a former advocate for LGBTQ equality asking questions the next time someone argues employers should be able to fire people because of who they are.
The next time there's a Democrat in office and we have the opportunity to nominate someone to a federal court, these are the types of judges who should be considered.
Share this list on social media and ask every Democrat if they’ll nominate candidates like these:
The GOP had a plan to take over the courts, and they succeeded. Now we have a plan to take them back, but it will only work if every one of us lines up behind judges like these.
In solidarity,
Demand Justice
Donald Trump is openly taking over our courts, and if we let him succeed, his nominees will keep his hateful vision alive on the federal bench for decades. Join Demand Justice and take a stand to protect our nation's courts.
Please take a moment to forward this email to 5 friends and ask them to sign up here to join us in the fight.
