Hello Friend,

In the first month of this new year, America has observed the one-year anniversary of the insurrection at the United States Capitol Building, witnessed the Supreme Court’s evisceration of President Biden’s efforts to end the pandemic through vaccine or testing requirements on private businesses, and saw a stunning failure to pass federal voting rights legislation, notwithstanding the ongoing implementation of voter suppression measures throughout the country.

We also celebrated the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr., but even that observation was marred by hypocrisy as Reverend King’s name was continually invoked in the service of promoting the Big Lie of election fraud, in the defeat of voting rights, and in efforts to whitewash American history by banning books and creating environments of fear and intimidation for teachers. Countless times this month, King’s words of unity were undermined by politicians promoting agendas that are anathema to everything he fought for throughout his life.

Our own focus in 2022 includes the launch of the Democracy Commitment, an effort to enlist thousands of lawyers to use their considerable knowledge and influence in support of fundamental principles to protect the rule of law and our democratic institutions. The Democracy Commitment proposes concrete actions that can be taken and offers LDAD’s commitment to assist in its implementation. You can read further about our efforts in this article we wrote for the National Law Journal.

We ask that you sign onto our Democracy Commitment and share it with all of your networks. We applaud the work of the New York City Bar Association in asking lawyers to commit to their pledge: America’s Lawyers on Voting and the Rule of Law: Nine Principles. We need other lawyers and bar associations throughout the country to be leaders in their own communities and engage in nonpartisan measures to defend democracy.

LDAD also seeks your financial support to help us continue our work. We are grateful to our fiscal sponsor, the Community Foundation of North Central Massachusetts, who has made it possible for our donations to be tax-deductible. Please support our work and click here to donate.

Among the many important words spoken by Reverend King in his brief life, these have particular resonance for this time of peril in our democracy: "In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends."

We hope that you heed these words and speak up. Write letters and opinion articles. Run for office at any level. Vote, and make sure everyone else can vote as well. Be the leader you need to be at this moment.

Thank you for your continued support of Lawyers Defending American Democracy. We encourage you to read about this month’s selection of LDAD’s Democracy Heroes and Democracy Threats, and feel free to contact us with ideas for future selections.


Lawyers Defending American Democracy
303 Congress Street
Boston, MA 02210
United States
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