Impact Docket – 08/12/26
This week demands action. Here are five ways you can push back right now:
Tell Congress: Reject the SAVE America Act — however it's packaged → Write to your legislators
🏛️ State-Level Advocacy
CA RESIDENTS: Last chance to stop the social media ban — A.B. 1709 → Send your letter in 2 minutes
📩 Short-Term Engagement
Volunteer interest form: Help fight election disinformation — a training is coming soon → Fill out the interest form
🛠️ Long-Term Engagement
Spanish speakers: Support habeas cases for people detained by ICE — interpreters and attorneys needed → Register for our September 16 info session
🤝 Partner Actions
Become a poll worker — make sure our people are running the polls → Sign up at Power the Polls
Whether you have 2 minutes or 2 days, join the fight. Keep reading for more context.
🔴 The Moment We're In: Confirmed
Early Saturday morning, by a vote of 50-49, the Senate confirmed Todd Blanche — Trump's former personal criminal defense attorney — as Attorney General. Senator Bill Cassidy cast the deciding vote. Only two Republicans, Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski, voted no; Murkowski said she could not trust Blanche to "check the worst impulses of this administration." Collins said he had taken actions that eroded the department's political independence. They were right to worry — and, unfortunately, were outvoted anyway.
We fought this one hard, and so did you. More than 2,800 attorneys signed our open letter. Cornyn and Tillis forced Blanche to produce written documentation before they'd advance him. It wasn't enough to stop the confirmation, but the fight was real, principled, and built exactly the kind of pressure this moment demands. The work doesn't end because a vote didn't go our way.
And the week made clear why. Days before the vote, Trump signed new executive orders attempting to end birthright citizenship, in open defiance of the Supreme Court, which rejected the same effort just weeks ago. He renewed his push to fire Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, another move the Court already blocked once. His strategy is to keep doing the unlawful thing until someone makes him stop. That is what the rule of law looks like under strain, and it is why lawyers cannot look away.
This week's docket has the entry points. Pick one. Start there.
⚡ QUICK ACTIONS
🗳️ Tell Congress: Reject the SAVE America Act — However It's Packaged
📍 L4GG.org/OpposeSAVEAct| 5 minutes
The Senate has repeatedly refused to pass the SAVE America Act — so its supporters keep trying to force it through by other means. In July, House Republicans attached it to the annual defense bill, packed voter-ID provisions into a stock-trading bill, and tried to route it through budget reconciliation — until the Senate parliamentarian ruled the provisions didn't qualify. Senate leaders have said plainly they don't have the votes to pass it on its own. That's exactly why the pressure can't let up: The strategy now is to bury it inside must-pass legislation where senators are forced to swallow it whole.
The underlying bill hasn't changed: documentary proof of citizenship that roughly 21.3 million eligible citizens can't easily access, a photo ID standard no state's current law fully satisfies, criminal penalties on election workers, and forced rewrites of election law in all 50 states. The Senate has said no again and again. Jamming it through the back door is an abuse of process.
Tell your senators to strip these provisions and vote NO - wherever they show up.
📩 SHORT-TERM ENGAGEMENT
🤖 Volunteer Interest Form: Election Disinformation
L4GG and Voter Protection Corps are building a fully remote program for lawyers to help identify, assess, and respond to election-related mis/disinformation online. A training is coming in the next few weeks. Fill out the interest form to be among the first to hear when the program launches.
🛠️ LONG-TERM ENGAGEMENT
🗣️ Spanish Speakers Needed: Habeas Corpus Info Session for Volunteer Interpreters and Attorneys
📍 L4GG.org/HabeasInfoSession | Wednesday, September 16 | 12:00 PM ET | Zoom
L4GG is seeking volunteer attorneys, law students, and legal professionals fluent in Spanish to serve as interpreters supporting habeas corpus petitions for people unlawfully detained by ICE — facilitating intake interviews, interpreting legal explanations during telephonic meetings, and coordinating with counsel and family members. Volunteer attorneys are also invited to learn about representing detained individuals in habeas cases directly.
This info session covers what habeas petitions are, the tasks interpreters perform, and the support L4GG provides — including training materials, model petitions, malpractice insurance, legal research tools, and mentoring. No immigration experience required. This session will be recorded and shared with all registrants. Register today.
🏛️ STATE-LEVEL ADVOCACY
📱 CA RESIDENTS: Last Chance to Stop the Social Media Ban — A.B. 1709
This is the final stretch for A.B. 1709 — and a full Senate floor vote could come soon. California lawmakers have amended the bill, but the core problems remain: It would ban everyone under 16 from social media and force age verification on every user, threatening the privacy and First Amendment rights of all Californians. Courts across the country have already struck down bans like this as unconstitutional.
This is the last chance to stop it before it reaches the floor. Tell your state Senator there's no "kid exception" to the First Amendment — and California shouldn't make taxpayers pay to defend a law that's unconstitutional on its face.
🤝 PARTNER ACTIONS
🗳️ Become a Poll Worker — Make Sure Our People Are Running the Polls
Our elections depend on ordinary people who make sure voting runs smoothly and every vote is counted. With election deniers actively recruiting to work the polls, it matters who shows up. Power the Polls makes it easy to sign up to be a poll worker in your community — you'll get trained and paid (varies by location). Help ensure safe, fair, efficient elections for all. Sign up to Power the Polls!
🎉 Community Impact: A Win Worth Marking
In heartening news, the Senate voted 90-6 to approve a Continuing Resolution that includes a rider halting OMB's federal grants rule until December. This is the same rule our community mobilized against, part of a wave of nearly 500,000 public comments opposing a proposal that would have handed political appointees unilateral control over more than $1 trillion in federal funding. The comments built the record. The pressure did the rest. (The bill still needs the House, which returns after Labor Day — but the Senate vote is a major step.)
This is what it looks like when this community shows up, and it's a reminder that our advocacy makes a difference, whether it wins the day outright or lays the groundwork for the next fight.
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.
