Protect Democracy

Protect Democracy
FormationNovember 2016
FounderIan Bassin
Justin Florence
Emily Loeb
Type501(c) nonprofit organization
PurposeAnti-authoritarianism advocacy
Region
United States
Executive Director
Ian Bassin
Websiteprotectdemocracy.org

Protect Democracy is a nonprofit organization based in the United States.[1] A nonpartisan group, Protect Democracy seeks to check what it believes are authoritarian attacks on U.S. democracy.[2][3][4]

Protect Democracy states that it seeks to use litigation, legislative and communications strategies, technology, research, and analysis to stand up for free and fair elections, the rule of law, fact-based debate, and a better democracy for future generations.[5][6][7] According to Time Magazine, the group is a "defender of America's system of government against the threat of authoritarianism."[8]

In 2023, Protect Democracy was named as one of five winners of the 2023 Skoll Award for Social Innovation by the Skoll Foundation.[9]

Leadership

In 2016, Protect Democracy was co-founded by Ian Bassin, Justin Florence, and Emily Loeb, who served as lawyers in the White House Counsel’s Office under former President Barack Obama.[10] In forming the organization, Protect Democracy's founders consulted with political scientists who later became members of the group's board of advisers, including Harvard University political scientists Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt.[8][11][12]

Bassin, a former White House associate counsel, serves as the executive director of Protect Democracy.[13] He was named a "MacArthur genius" in 2023.[14] The following year, Bassin and Florence were named to the Time 100 Next list in an article written by John Dean, former White House Counsel to Richard Nixon.[15]

Activities

Accountability of candidates and elected officials

Protect Democracy advocates for maintaining a strong separation between the White House and the Justice Department.[2] In 2020, the group collected letters from hundreds of DOJ alumni, calling for former Attorney General William Barr to step down.[16][17] The DOJ alumni also claimed the Mueller report presented enough evidence to charge former President Donald Trump with obstruction of justice.[18]

Protect Democracy has criticized both Democrats and Republicans over resisting congressional oversight.[19][20] In 2021, the group represented 66 former members of Congress, including two dozen Republicans, challenging Trump’s efforts to block the January 6th Select Committee from accessing his presidential records.[21] During the 2020 election, Bassin urged then-candidate Joe Biden to reverse course after declaring he would defy a subpoena if called to testify in Trump’s first impeachment.[22] Biden eventually backed off his comments.[23]

Following the January 6th Capitol riots, Protect Democracy represented Capitol Police officers suing Trump under the Klan Act for his role in inciting the crowd.[24][25] In February 2022, the Court denied Trump’s motion to dismiss the case.[26] In an amicus brief filed in the case, the DOJ rejected Trump’s claim to have blanket immunity from civil liability for his conduct in office.[27][28] In December 2023, a three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit ruled that Trump was not immune from prosecution for his actions on January 6.[29][30]

Protect Democracy also represented Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman in a case against former Trump aides and allies, accusing them of intimidating and retaliating against him for testifying against Trump during his first impeachment.[31][32]

The group sued the 2016 Trump campaign on behalf of Jessica Denson, a former Trump campaign staffer, in an attempt to invalidate the non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) that she and other staffers were made to sign.[33] Denson got her own NDA overturned in 2021, and two years later, a judge ruled that her victory extends to all who signed the NDA.[34]

First Amendment work

Protect Democracy’s litigation has advocated on behalf of First Amendment rights. In 2019, the organization filed a lawsuit on behalf of Reverend Kaji Douša, challenging a previously secret Department of Homeland Security (DHS) surveillance operation that targeted activists, journalists, lawyers, and faith leaders, all of whom spoke out against the Trump administration.[35][36] In 2023, a federal judge in California ruled that U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the DHS violated Douša’s rights by retaliating against her for ministering to migrants and refugees.[37][38]

In another 2023 lawsuit filed on behalf of Penguin Random House, PEN America, and individuals in Florida, Protect Democracy worked with Ballard Spahr to challenge the constitutionality of the Escambia County School District’s removal and restriction of books discussing race, racism, or LGBTQ issues from public school libraries.[39][40]

A third lawsuit, filed on behalf of several businesses in Florida, challenged the state’s Stop WOKE Act.[41] In March 2024, a three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit of Appeals upheld a lower court’s injunction blocking enforcement of the law, ruling that Florida businesses' speech rights were improperly restricted.[42]

Law for Truth

The group also launched "Law for Truth", which uses defamation law to impose accountability on those who spread election disinformation.[43][44] Law for Truth has brought lawsuits on behalf of Ruby Freeman and Wandrea' ArShaye Moss, two election workers in Georgia, and a postmaster in Pennsylvania, who suffered online and offline threats to their safety due to false media stories about their alleged involvement in election fraud.[45][46][47] Freeman and Moss, who sued One America News Network, Rudy Giuliani and The Gateway Pundit, were awarded the Presidential Citizens Medal for their defense of the 2020 election.[48]

In July 2023, Giuliani conceded that the statements he made about Freeman and Moss were false.[49] In December of that year, a federal court ordered Giuliani to pay Freeman and Moss $148 million in compensatory and punitive damages.[50][51]

Protect Democracy's case representing Robert Weisenbach, the Republican postmaster in Pennsylvania, was settled out of court by Project Veritas and James O'Keefe.[52][53] In another lawsuit, the group represents Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer, who sued former Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake for defamation over claims she made about Richer’s role in the 2022 Arizona gubernatorial election.[54][55][56]

The group also sued the makers and promoters of the film 2,000 Mules, representing Mark Andrews, a voter who legally placed his ballot and those of his family into a dropbox ahead of the 2020 election.[57][58] In May 2024, Salem Media Group (one of the parties being sued) issued a statement apologizing to Andrews and announcing that Salem had removed the film from its platforms.[59][60]

National Task Force on Election Crises

In 2019, Protect Democracy also convened the nonpartisan "National Task Force on Election Crises," a cross-ideological group of more than 50 experts on elections, security, public health, and other areas.[61][62][63] The Task Force issues analyses and reports, holding press briefings on how the electoral system is supposed to work for the purpose of building resiliency against efforts to subvert the electoral process.[64][8][65]

Preventing abuses of emergency power

Protect Democracy represented El Paso County, Texas and the Border Network for Human Rights in a 2019 lawsuit, alleging that Trump’s declaration of a national emergency to build a wall on the southern border violated federal statutes, including the National Emergencies Act and Consolidated Appropriations Act.[66][67] The lawsuit was ultimately rendered moot by the Supreme Court after changes in policy under the Biden administration.[68]

The group has written amicus briefs focused on executive overreach in relation to two of the Supreme Court’s cases involving deliberations over presidential emergency powers: A Trump administration migration restriction in Arizona v. Mayorkas and the Biden administration’s student debt cancellation program in Biden v. Nebraska.[69] The group argued that both cases together represented an opportunity to “[propose] a standard for how the Court should consider challenges to executive actions based on congressional delegations of emergency powers.”[70]

Advocating recusals from elected officials running their own elections

Protect Democracy has challenged Republican and Democratic officials over claims that they were misusing their offices to improperly interfere in elections. In 2018, Protect Democracy sued then-Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp, seeking his recusal from overseeing a recount in an election in which he was also a candidate.[71][72] The group also filed a lawsuit against then-Florida Governor Rick Scott, claiming the Constitution sets limits on an elected official’s ability to exercise governmental powers over their own election.[73][74] Protect Democracy later challenged Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood, a Democrat, for appearing to use his governmental position to advance his own candidacy for governor.[75][76]

Preventing voter suppression

The organization has also pushed back on efforts to impinge the right to vote.[77] In 2022, the group filed a lawsuit against individuals and organizations conspiring to intimidate Arizona voters who were using drop boxes to deliver their ballots in the 2022 election.[78][79] Days later, a federal court issued an order barring the defendants in the case from confronting, photographing, and doxing voters, in addition to carrying guns and wearing body armor near drop boxes.[80][81]

In 2023, it was one of the groups that filed a lawsuit challenging Virginia’s lifetime ban on voting for anyone convicted of any felony.[82] The suit argues that Virginia’s disenfranchisement provision violates a little-known federal law: The Virginia Readmission Act, a Reconstruction-era statute designed to protect the newly-enshrined rights, including the right to vote, of formerly enslaved citizens.[83]

Accountability for political violence

Protect Democracy has filed two lawsuits aimed at deterring voter intimidation and political violence. The cases involved Biden-Harris campaigners and a bus driver who were on a campaign bus in October 2020, when they were ambushed by a “Trump Train” in Texas.[84] One case, Davis v. Cisneros, targeted the drivers of the “Trump Train” for harassment and intimidation.[85] The second case, Cervini v. Stapp, was filed against San Marcos law enforcement officials who allegedly failed to provide a police escort during the attack.[86][87]

The city of San Marcos and three of its police officials agreed to a monetary settlement, admitting in the settlement agreement of falling short of their policing standards. In the agreement, they also committed to institute police training on responding to political violence and voter intimidation.[86][87] A jury in the other case found the lead organizer of the "Trump Train" guilty of using threats to prevent the Biden-Harris campaigners from engaging in political activity.[88][89]

Electoral Count Act

Protect Democracy advocated for passage of the Electoral Count Act (ECA), which was passed into law in 2022.[90][91][92] According to Washington Post columnist Greg Sargent, the group “wrote one of the earliest blueprints on how to reform [the] ECA.”[93]

Reports

"The Authoritarian Playbook"

The group has released research on "The Authoritarian Playbook," which can be used to distinguish authoritarianism from other forms of politics.[94][95] This guide catalogs the seven basic tactics that are almost always present in examples of democratic backsliding around the world:[94]

  • Politicizing independent institutions
  • Spreading disinformation
  • Aggrandizing executive power and undermining checks & balances
  • Quashing dissent
  • Marginalizing vulnerable communities
  • Corrupting elections
  • Stoking violence

In 2024, the affiliated 501(c)(4) United to Protect Democracy issued "The Authoritarian Playbook for 2025," which details the alleged threat a second Trump administration would pose to American democracy.[96][97][98][99]

Protect Democracy has issued reports and policy proposals examining the links between anti-democratic extremism and the U.S. electoral system.[100][101] In partnership with Interfaith America, the group also developed the "Faith in Elections Playbook," which supports faith-based communities with resources to engage in the 2024 election.[102][103][104]

In 2024, the group issued a report on the rise of mass voter challenges, explaining how such challenges are used to disrupt the electoral process.[105][106]

State-level election subversion report

In 2021, along with the States United Democracy Center and Law Forward, Protect Democracy issued an initial report on state legislative attempts that threaten to subvert elections.[107][108] It has subsequently released updates to the report.[109][110][111]

Guide to identifying a politicized investigation

In response to the federal and state investigations against Trump, the group issued a guide seeking to tell the difference between politicized investigations and normal, appropriate efforts by law enforcement.[112][113]

Advocating for long-term reforms

"Rethinking Our Democracy" series

Collaborating with the University of Chicago's Center for Effective Government, Protect Democracy experts have hosted two “Rethinking Our Democracy” series in The Washington Post, proposing institutional reforms to strengthen American democracy.[114]

Proportional representation

Protect Democracy has also advocated for reforming the U.S. system of government toward proportional representation.[115][116] In 2022, the group organized a coalition of more than 200 pro-democracy scholars to advocate for abolishing single-member districts.[117][118]

Restoring fusion voting

In 2024, Protect Democracy represented a group of Kansas voters who argued their third party was illegally kept off the state's general election ballot.[119] The effort is part of a broader push in states like Kansas to legalize so-called fusion voting, which allows more than one party to nominate the same political candidate.[120][121]

Software

VoteShield

Protect Democracy developed the software VoteShield, which uses publicly available data to track changes to voter rolls, identifying potentially suspicious irregularities.[122][123]

See also

References

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