Reading List: Lawyers Confronting Authoritarianism
We are in a unique moment in this nation’s history —one where the authoritarian advance grows every day, and the rule of law can no longer be taken for granted. Lawyers and legal workers have a unique role to play in defending the legal institutions now under threat —as imperfect as they may be—and the social justice movements that will serve as the foundation for building a broad anti-authoritarian front.
This document provides a comprehensive list of recommended resources for practitioners interested in learning more about what left lawyering in an authoritarian context entails. It includes both resources specific to lawyering in these times and essential background on the authoritarian advance and the role organizing must play in defeating it.
In solidarity,
Movement Law Lab
What We’re Up Against
The Authoritarian Playbook for 2025, Protect Democracy
From Past to Present: Understanding This Moment in U.S. Political Prosecutions of Justice Movements and Alarmingly Common: Modern-Day Political Prosecutions Targeting Justice Movements, In Defense of Movements
Where We Are: A Strategic Assessment of Authoritarian Consolidation, Scot Nakagawa, The Anti-Authoritarian Playbook, December 2025
What Propels the Global Authoritarian Surge and How We Can Fight Back, Meena Jagannath and Nikki Thanos, Convergence, February 2024
A History of the Conservative Legal Movement, Movement Law Lab, April 2024 (please do not share this webinar link publicly)
Pillars of Authoritarian Support, Horizons Project
Building an Anti-Authoritarian Front
Block, Bridge, and Build: A Framework to Forge a More Democratic Future, Julia Roig, Horizons Project, January 2026
Authoritarians Aren’t Just Trying to Win. They’re Trying to Grab More Power and The 89 Million, Ash-Lee Woodard Henderson
What we can learn from the playbook that defeated Orbán, Daniel Hunter, Waging Nonviolence, April 2026
Preventing Authoritarian Consolidation: A Strategic Guide for Building Democratic Resistance. Scot Nakagawa, The Anti-Authoritarian Playbook, October 2025
Resistance is alive and well in the United States, Erica Chenoweth, Jeremy Pressman, and Soha Hammam, Waging Nonviolence, March 2025
How we can meet the challenges of authoritarianism, Maria J. Stephan, Waging Nonviolence, November 2024
The Antidote to Authoritarianism: Organizing Revival, Beth Jacob and James Mumm, People’s Action, 2023
Strategy in the Time of MAGA: Block and Build, Max Elbaum, Common Dreams, July 2023
The Left Needs a Statewide Strategy, Eric Blanc and Puya Gerami, Jacobin, July 2019
The Left needs a united front in every state, Anthony Thigpenn and Jon Liss, Convergence, October 2019
Combatting Authoritarianism: The Skills and Infrastructure Needed to Organize Across Difference, Maria J. Stephan and Julia Roig, Just Security, January 2022
More Than the Weekend: Unions, the Past and the Future of Democracy, Michael Podhorzer, The Contrarian, April 2024
The one single, proven constraint on oligarchy and autocracy, Michael Podhorzer, The Contrarian, February 2025
“How democracies prevail: democratic resilience as a two-stage process,” V. A. Boese, A. B. Edgell, S. Hellmeier, S. F. Maerz and S. I. Lindberg, Democratization, 2021.
“Breaking Down Pillars of Support for Democratic Backsliding,” Jonathan Pinckney and Claire Trilling, Mobilization: An International Quarterly, 2024.
Why Civil Resistance Works: The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict, Erica Chenoweth and Maria J. Stephan (Columbia University Press, 2011).
The Role of Lawyers
Movement Lawyering in Times of Rising Authoritarianism, Meena Jagannath and Felipe Mesel, The Law and Political Economy Project, October 2024
Unprecedented: How Lawyers Can Build Power to Defeat Authoritarianism, Movement Law Lab, February 2024 (please do not share this webinar link publicly)
What Organizers Need From Lawyers, Part 1: Help Block Authoritarians, Meena Jagannath and Nikki Thanos, Convergence, April 2024
What Organizers Need From Lawyers, Part 2: Help Build Deep Democracy, Meena Jagannath and Nikki Thanos, Convergence, April 2024
Cummings, Scott L., Lawyers in Backsliding Democracy (January 10, 2023). 112 Calif. L. Rev. 513 (2024), UCLA School of Law, Public Law Research Paper No. 23-01
Who to Follow
The Anti-Authoritarian Playbook – Substack by Scot Nakagawa, co-founder and Co-Director of the 22nd Century Initiative (22CI), a national strategy and action center that is building a movement to resist authoritarianism and preserve the possibility of a more democratic future
The Fascism Barometer – a podcast by Ejeris Dixon to educate impacted communities about what fascism is and how we stop it
If you can keep it – Substack by Protect Democracy, a nonpartisan, nonprofit group working to prevent authoritarianism
Authoritarian Watch – weekly column in The Nation focused on authoritarianism
Weekend Reading – Michael Podhorzer Substack on politics, economics, and democratic crises
One First – a weekly newsletter from Steve Vladeck aiming to make the Supreme Court’s rulings, procedures, and history more accessible to all
The Contrarian Substack – unflinching journalism in defense of democracy
The New Liberator – Liberation Road / El Camino Para la Liberación Substack for movement insights and strategic analysis for the freedom struggle.
Project 2025 Executive Action Tracker - Center for Progressive Reform
Additional Syllabi & Resource Lists
Freedom Trainers Noncooperation Library and No Kings Curriculum: resource library from a network of trainers teaching folks about powerful tools of collective noncompliance and mass noncooperation, based on tried and true tactics used by movements from around the world fighting against authoritarianism. The library includes an open-source curriculum of recorded webinars, facilitation agendas, and case studies to encourage everyday people to learn about the fight against authoritarianism. It also includes resources to support conversations among lawyers that specifically address how lawyers can stand up in the fight against authoritarianism.
Study Syllabus: Block and Build: Left Strategy in the MAGA Era, Convergence, 2023
Contact Us
The list is created and maintained by Movement Law Lab, drawing heavily from the work of our partners and comrades. If you have any additional suggestions for this list, please fill out this form.