We are inviting you to bravely step into an arc of work upon which all of our other work depends. At a minimum, each of us must deepen the connections between the work we’re already doing and the collective task of defending, building. and strengthening a multiracial democracy.

Lawyers must be prepared to help defend the terrain on which we organize, stop the criminalization of protest, and help build ecosystem-wide approaches to safety and security.

While keeping people safe and fighting for immediate material wins, we must also be steadfastly committed to the project of creating long-term governing power. Ultimately, lawyers are needed to dream and plan alongside organizers as strategists.

Any issue that lawyers hope to advance–no matter how local–is bound up with the worldwide rise of authoritarianism. We need to better understand the threat so that we can play our part in a pro-democratic front to both thwart authoritarian power grabs and build a better future.

The history of the authoritarian campaign to seize the courts reveals how closely the electoral and judicial arenas are linked, and how politics shapes the interpretation of the law. The structural changes that the authoritarian actors have put into place are going to take decades to address, not only through Congressional action but also through informed action on the part of people.