How We Fight Back!

With Action YOU can take TODAY!

Remember how the MAGA minions filed all those lawsuits against the Biden Administration - the Mifepristone lawsuits, the multiple lawsuits against reducing student loan debt, etc., etc., etc.?

Even wonder how they did that? We all know about the judge-shopping, but they needed SOMETHING. And that “something” was 5 U.S.C. 706 aka the Administrative Procedure Act (APA). From Cornell:

To the extent necessary to decision and when presented, the reviewing court shall decide all relevant questions of law, interpret constitutional and statutory provisions, and determine the meaning or applicability of the terms of an agency action. The reviewing court shall—

(1) compel agency action unlawfully withheld or unreasonably delayed; and

(2) hold unlawful and set aside agency action, findings, and conclusions found to be—

(A) arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, or otherwise not in accordance with law;

(B) contrary to constitutional right, power, privilege, or immunity;

(C) in excess of statutory jurisdiction, authority, or limitations, or short of statutory right;

(D) without observance of procedure required by law;

(E) unsupported by substantial evidence in a case subject to sections 556 and 557 of this title or otherwise reviewed on the record of an agency hearing provided by statute; or

(F) unwarranted by the facts to the extent that the facts are subject to trial de novo by the reviewing court.

In making the foregoing determinations, the court shall review the whole record or those parts of it cited by a party, and due account shall be taken of the rule of prejudicial error.

(Pub. L. 89–554, Sept. 6, 1966, 80 Stat. 393.)

In regular-people English: they sued saying that some Federal Agency had done something that was illegal. And yes, we used this too, for example, to stop the Muslim ban in 2017, along with other things during the first reign of terror.

Our first lawsuit was filed a few days ago by the ACLU. From the ACLU press release:

Lawsuit seeks details on how ICE’s air travel infrastructure could be expanded to facilitate President-elect Donald Trump’s mass deportation, detention plan.

Full legal complaint here.

I know, I know, you’re not a lawyer, so how does this involve you? (And if you ARE a lawyer, you can help, contact me, and I’ll connect you.) Well, this is the first of what will be many lawsuits, and we are going to leverage the Orange Menace’s approach of delay, delay, delay.

If a lawsuit is filed, it’s sometimes possible to get an injunction, forcing the Agency to NOT do the thing until the case is adjudicated. If there’s an appeal, another injunction is possible….and it can take a while to get up the chain to SCOTUS. Like YEARS. And changes will likely be legally estopped in the interim.

To be able to file a lawsuit, the person, or class, needs to have standing. This means that the party must show an “injury in fact” to be able to “stand” before the court. Therefore, keep track of whatever obnoxious nonsense the regime attempts, and if you have standing, become a litigant, or a member of the class.

In addition, give money to the law firms. These lawsuits are incredibly expensive, and the fascists will be able to pay out of DoJ funds (that’s OUR TAX MONEY, DAMMIT) and we need dollars to compete. Right now, the ACLU is a good choice. There will be more legal firms as we move forward. Even if you’ve only got $5, they can use it to help protect US.

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VISIBILITY

The next thing to do is to be visible. COMMUNICATE with the other resistors. This means being active on social media¹. It means attending Zoom calls. It means sharing information. It means going to meetings, meet-ups and marches.

Until the day they disconnect us, we need to stand together. And be visible. There is strength in numbers.

I can’t repeat this often enough — INTERACT!!!!

And remember, when you refer to us, it is the DEMOCRATIC Party and not the “Democrat” party. If you don’t know why, or if you don’t know why it’s important to correct anyone and everyone who gets it wrong, read this link. Quiz on Tuesday.

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ACCOUNTABILITY

Hold ALL elected officials accountable and complicit. This includes every Rethuglican and any Democrats or Independents that align with them.

Every member of Congress stands for election every two years. Every Senator stands for election every 6 years. They are going to need to vote on all sorts of things. Which means they are responsible for their positions. HELP THEM BE RESPONSIBLE.

There are two ways to do this. First, tie them to every action the regime takes. Never say “47 did….”² instead say, “The Republican Party did…”. Here are some samples³:

• The Republican Party, through 47’s Executive Order #12345, with complicity from the Republican-controlled Congress, is trying to deport US citizens caught up in raids in <town>.

• The Republican House of Representatives enacted Bill #12345 which prevents Mifepristone from being mailed across state lines.

• The Republican Party, in complete fealty to their Master, has allowed him to take away their purse strings.

You get the idea.

Use these ideas when you post and share across social media.

In addition, get used to writing to your members of the House and Senate (and state elected officials when they try things.) There is hardly anything that comes up for a vote without there being a lead in. That is, except when, say, MTG puts up a floor action to oust their Speaker, which has to come up quickly, there’s some semblance of a process⁴. That means we know what is going to committee, in committee and coming out of committee, and then going to the floor. The best time to reach out is as soon as possible when something get to committee.

For a lot of the insanity that will arise this spring, there is a Rethuglican problem: if they don’t acquiesce to the Orange Menace, they will be primaried by someone further right and complicit. However, if they do, they will need to defend their votes in the General. MAKE SURE THEY KNOW HOW YOU WILL VOTE!

In addition, if there are Democratic elected officials who do, or in the case I’m about to bring up, DON’T do, make sure they know, too.

JB Pritzker and Jared Polis, governors of Illinois and Colorado, respectively, formed the Democrats Safeguarding Democracy organization. But you know who hasn’t joined them? The other 22 Democratic governors (including Puerto Rico). Your assignment for today (and everyone who lives in a state with a Democratic governor can do this) is to read this article, and use the information to send a letter to their governor. I recommend making a few changes to personalize it, but you can use it as is.

Unsure⁵? Here’s the list:

• Arizona — Katie Hobbs

• California — Gavin Newsom

• Connecticut — Ned Lmont

• Delaware — John Carney (Matt Meyer in January)

• Hawaii — Josh Green

• Kansas — Laura Kelly

• Kentucky — Andy Beshear

• Maine — Janet Mills

• Maryland — Wes Moore

• Massachusetts — Maura Healey

• Michigan — Gretchen Whitmer

• Minnesota — Tim Walz

• New Jersey — Phil Murphy

• New Mexico — Michelle Lujan Grisham

• New York — Kathy Hochul

• North Carolina — Roy Cooper (Josh Stein in January)

• Oregon — Tina Kotek

• Pennsylvania — Josh Shapiro

• Puerto Rico — Pedro Pierluisi

• Rhode Island — Dan McKee

• Washington — Jay Inslee

• Wisconsin — Tony Evers

You have your assignment. You know what to do.

I cannot say this often enough:

1. If you haven’t joined BlueSky yet, do that right now.

2. NEVER USE HIS NAME. NEVER EVER.

3. These things have not happened yet, they are just examples of what could.

4. When Democrats are in charge, there is ALWAYS process. Correct and honourable.

5. Yes, you SHOULD be able to name all the Governors. Sorry, that’s rude of me.