We at the Movement Law Lab (MLL) are lawyers troubled by the threat of rising authoritarianism and the capture of US legal institutions.  We believe the law can be leveraged to intervene in and interrupt the erosion of our democracy — but it will require a massive transformation of our sector and a new power-building commitment to bolster, defend and embolden social movement organizers. These “Democracy Dispatches” are an agitation to the legal sector to fulfill our role in fighting for a multiracial, pluralistic democracy.

Over the course of this series, we hope to make meaning of the current moment and help both lawyers and organizers understand the gravity of what is at stake when democracy erodes.  We’ll offer encouragement for how lawyers in every sector can become protagonists in the pro-democracy movement.  We’ll also lift up examples of lawyers and legal institutions who are moving beyond winning cases to building collective power.