Impact Docket – 05/20/26
This week demands action. Here are TEN ways you can push back right now:
⚡ Quick Actions
Add Your Name: Attorney Sign On Letter Opposing Todd Blanche as Attorney General → Sign the open letter
Tell the Senate: Reject Schwartz for the Second Circuit → Write to your senators
Tell Congress: Pass the Protecting Our Democracy Act → Write to Congress
Tell Congress: Vote NO on $71 billion more for ICE → Write to Congress
Tell Congress: Protect Public Service Loan Forgiveness → Write to Congress
🏛️ State-Level Advocacy
Tell the NJ Legislature: Shield providers from out-of-state attacks on lawful healthcare → Write to your NJ legislators
📩 Short-Term Engagement
Oppose weakened rules for coal ash dumps → Use resources (below) to submit a comment by June 12
🛠️ Long-Term Engagement
TOMORROW: Pro bono habeas training - volunteer in El Paso → Register
🤝 Partner Actions
Election Protection Lawyer Mobilization → Join the national call on May 27
🎉 Save the Date!
L4GG's 10th Anniversary Convening in D.C. → Sign up to be first to know!
Whether you have 2 minutes or 2 days, join the fight. Keep reading for more context.
🔴 The Moment We're In: No Guardrails
Yesterday, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche — Trump's former personal criminal defense attorney — sat before Congress and refused to rule out using taxpayer money to compensate people who assaulted police officers on January 6. The money comes from a $1.776 billion fund the DOJ created without congressional approval, carved out of a settlement of Trump's own lawsuit against the IRS. Blanche appoints the commission that decides who gets paid. Even the Senate Majority Leader said he's "not a big fan." That’s why we’ve launched an open letter from American lawyers calling on the Senate to oppose Blanche as Attorney General — add your name below.
This is the DOJ that indicted the Southern Poverty Law Center, fired its own top ethics lawyer, and confirmed yesterday it is working to implement an executive order restricting mail voting. This is the president who accepted a $400 million jet from Qatar and faces no legal consequence because the laws that should prevent it don't exist yet. And this is the president who has now nominated his other personal attorney — Matthew Schwartz, who is currently defending Trump's felony conviction on appeal — to a lifetime seat on the federal appeals court with jurisdiction over the district that prosecuted him.
There is a word for what happens when the Justice Department serves the president instead of the public, when the courts are stacked with loyalists, and when corruption carries no legal consequence. It's called the absence of the rule of law. And every action in this week's docket is designed to fight it.
⚡ QUICK ACTIONS
📜 Tell the Senate: Oppose Todd Blanche as Attorney General
Todd Blanche has stated publicly that Americans should be "happy" the president is "deeply involved" in DOJ decisions, and dismissed White House independence from the Department of Justice as "the most false statement I have ever heard." These positions are disqualifying.
Blanche served as Trump's personal criminal defense attorney — including in the federal classified documents case. DOJ's top career ethics lawyer advised him to recuse himself from Trump-related matters. That ethics lawyer was fired. Under Blanche, the Department has launched criminal inquiries against the president's perceived political opponents, indicted the Southern Poverty Law Center, settled Trump's own lawsuit against the IRS for $1.776 billion in taxpayer funds, and moved to vacate the seditious conspiracy convictions of those who attacked the Capitol on January 6. Sign the open letter for attorneys here.
📜 Tell the Senate: Reject Matthew Schwartz for the Second Circuit
Trump has nominated his personal attorney to a lifetime seat on the Second Circuit — the court that hears appeals from the Southern District of New York. Matthew Schwartz is currently representing Trump in the appeal of his 34-count felony conviction and in the appeal of a finding that Trump fraudulently inflated asset values by up to $2.2 billion annually. His reward is a nomination to the court with jurisdiction over the very district that prosecuted his client.
Schwartz has also asked the Supreme Court to overturn the precedent protecting Americans from housing discrimination under the Fair Housing Act, and argued against class certification for investors defrauded by Barclays. The president has said publicly that it is "OK" for justices to be "loyal to the person that appointed them." Schwartz is who that loyalty test produces. Tell the Senate to vote NO on his confirmation.
📜 Tell Congress: Pass the Protecting Our Democracy Act
No president should be able to accept a $400 million jet from a foreign government, sell pardons, or run a pay-to-play scheme from the Oval Office. The Protecting Our Democracy Act closes the legal gaps that have allowed all three.
H.R. 8831 (House) and S. 2838 (Senate) would codify the Foreign and Domestic Emoluments Clauses, prohibit the president from accepting payments from pardon recipients or appointees, strengthen whistleblower protections, require presidential candidates to submit tax returns to the FEC, and depoliticize the civil service. L4GG is among the bill's endorsers. Constitutional norms only hold when they are written into enforceable law. Write to Congress.
📜 Tell Congress: Vote NO on $71 Billion More for ICE
We've been holding this line since January. The Senate votes in the coming weeks. The House follows. Trump wants it on his desk by June 1.
After months of pressure from lawyers, advocates, and more than 1,000 organizations — L4GG among them — DHS appropriations stalled for 76 days because Democrats demanded real guardrails. Congressional Republicans responded with reconciliation: a fast-track process to bypass the filibuster and every reform on the table.
The reconciliation bill would allocate $71 billion in new mandatory funds for ICE and CBP — on top of the $170 billion Congress approved last summer by cutting health care and food assistance. No body cameras, warrants or restrictions on raids - plus a wave of amendments designed to criminalize and surveil immigrant communities. Tell Congress: Vote NO.
📜 Tell Congress: Protect Public Service Loan Forgiveness
A Department of Education rule taking effect July 1 lets Education Secretary Linda McMahon disqualify entire employers from Public Service Loan Forgiveness based on whether their activities align with the administration's "public policy." That means a public defender's office, a legal aid nonprofit, or a civil rights organization could lose qualifying status overnight — taking years of forgiveness progress with it. Congress wrote PSLF into law in 2007 with bipartisan support. More than 1.2 million public servants have received forgiveness totaling over $90 billion.
H.J. Res. 155 and S.J. Res. 182 are Congressional Review Act resolutions to overturn the rule — and a vote is expected soon. Tell Congress to vote YES.
📩 SHORT-TERM ENGAGEMENT
🏭 Submit a Comment: Oppose Weakened Rules for Coal Ash Dumps
📍Follow the steps below | Comment deadline: June 12
The EPA is proposing to weaken rules on coal ash — the toxic byproduct of coal-fired power plants. This rule would exempt plant owners from ensuring their coal ash isn't polluting groundwater and poisoning nearby residents, and give more latitude to states to regulate these sites despite historic evidence that many states haven't used that authority to protect their residents.
Register by May 21 to make a comment at the public hearing on May 28 (you can listen in if you miss the registration deadline).
Read Earthjustice and Sierra Club's Comment Toolkit and draft your comment
Submit your comment via the Federal Register by June 12, 2026
Let us know you submitted at L4GG.org/TrackComment
🛠️ LONG-TERM ENGAGEMENT
⚖️ Pro Bono Habeas Training: Volunteer with PBLC in El Paso
📍 L4GG.org/HabeasTraining | Wednesday, May 21 | 2:00 PM ET | Zoom
L4GG is launching a large-scale habeas project to seek the release of people unlawfully detained by ICE at Fort Bliss and Dilley Detention Centers. We have volunteer attorneys across the country ready to draft petitions and filings — but we need local counsel in El Paso who can file with the court and handle in-person appearances. This training covers case matching, Western District of Texas court procedures, and the resources L4GG provides to volunteers.
No immigration experience required. L4GG provides malpractice insurance, research access, filing templates, mentoring, and administrative support.
Know an attorney in El Paso? Please share this training widely.
Not in El Paso? You can still join the Pro Bono Litigation Corps — L4GG's in-house program matching independent attorneys with high-impact constitutional cases. Since July 2025, 600+ attorneys have signed on, 100+ are actively litigating, and PBLC volunteers have filed federal lawsuits defending the Underground Railroad Education Center and challenging mass terminations of 140+ federal employees.
🤝 PARTNER ACTIONS
🗳️ Election Protection Lawyer Mobilization — National Call on May 27
📍 Register here | Wednesday, May 27 | 2:00 PM ET | Virtual
Attacks on free and fair elections are escalating — and lawyers are needed on the field now more than ever. Join L4GG and coalition partners including the Transformative Justice Coalition, We The Action, American Constitution Society, Public Citizen, and others for a national mobilization call bringing together attorneys committed to defending election integrity.
You'll hear about how lawyers can engage before, during, and after the election, plus concrete models from attorneys already doing innovative voter protection work in their communities. The call closes with a Call to Action from Barbara Arnwine for the upcoming Good Trouble Lives On Weekend of Action (July 17-19). Register now!
We’ll be back next week with more ways to take action—but the work doesn’t stop here.
Know someone else who would be interested in this newsletter? Share this link so they can sign up too.
Join our rapid-response SMS group by texting “community” to 771-203-4895.
