Susan Leonard first learned about People For the American Way when she visited our D.C. office as part of a class trip she was chaperoning. "I was impressed by the presentation and the work you were doing," she says. "I joined immediately and have kept up my membership ever since."

That was 30 years ago. Today she is a teacher in New York and more passionate than ever about the issues of race, inequality, and civil rights that first motivated her to join People For the American Way. She also works hard to instill a sense of civic responsibility in her students. "I am passionate about opening young people's eyes to the world around them," Susan says. "I have a small class with whom I read the op-ed section of the New York Times each week. We look at articles from both sides of the issue."

Susan knows she can count on People For the American Way to keep up the fight for progress. "I rely on PFAW to keep me up-to-date, to alert me to new issues, and to be at my back when I explain the issues to others."

Thank you to Susan for all of her support, her dedication to the American ideal, and her amazing work as an educator!

The Supreme Court term that ended in June 2019 demonstrated the profound influence of replacing Anthony Kennedy with Brett Kavanaugh. With the Court’s fair-minded constitutionalists – Justices Ginsburg, Breyer, Sotomayor, and Kagan – in the minority, the ultra-conservatives are taking steps to cement their movement’s political power and reverse many of the advances that protect our health, our jobs, and our most basic constitutional rights.

The Supreme Court’s damaging 2010 ruling in Citizens United enabled corporations and wealthy donors to spend unlimited amounts of undisclosed money to influence elections. Since then, outside election spending has skyrocketed, with nearly $1.1 billion spent on the 2018 midterm elections alone. Most of this money comes from fewer than one percent of Americans, meaning the ultra-wealthy exert outsized influence over who makes it into public office.

On July 30, Senators Tom Udall, D-N.M., and Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., along with the other 45 members of the Democratic caucus reintroduced the Democracy For All Amendment, a constitutional amendment that would overturn Citizens United and related cases. They want to elevate the people’s role in our democracy and protect the integrity of American elections by once again allowing Congress and the states to limit campaign contributions and spending.

After nearly three years of Donald Trump’s dangerous and abhorrent anti-immigrant rhetoric, it should be no surprise that the treatment of immigrants under his administration has been increasingly devastating.

To protest this human rights crisis, PFAW joined a coalition of groups to speak out against these injustices and demand that the government close these detention camps for good. With the help of organizations like MoveOn, United We Dream, Families Belong Together, and thousands of grassroots organizers, close to 200 protests nationwide were held to protest the detention camps.

PFAW hosted a member telebriefing with Senator Blumenthal, D-Conn., to discuss the big takeaways from the Supreme Court term. The senator and PFAW’s experts focused on the impact that Kavanaugh’s replacement of Kennedy had on the court. Trump’s appointments of narrow-minded elitists, Kavanaugh and Gorsuch, solidified a conservative majority and led to a wave of decisions that undermined basic human rights.

The Court’s decisions during this term pointed to worrying signs for the future.

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These are just a small sampling from the "Confirmed Judges, Confirmed Fears" series — for more great content, please visit PFAW's blog >>