A bipartisan coalition of veteran lawyers, former judges, and voting experts is expanding its legal fight against President Donald Trump’s executive orders.
The group includes the Democracy Defenders Fund, the Campaign Legal Center, and the American Civil Liberties Union, which have all challenged two Trump orders that would rewrite voting rules and strip states of authority the Constitution reserves for them, according to a Monday article by The Guardian.
Barbara McQuade, a former U.S. attorney for eastern Michigan who now teaches law at the University of Michigan, said the advocacy groups are drawing the kind of firepower that large corporate firms once supplied but no longer do.
“Thank goodness for groups like the Democracy Defenders Fund, which are attracting top legal talent and challenging some of Trump’s lawless activities,” McQuade told The Guardian. “Their work is protecting the rights of all Americans.”
That talent now spans the ideological spectrum, according to The Guardian. Norm Eisen, executive chair of the Democracy Defenders Fund, said his group deliberately partners with organizations that carry credibility on both sides of the aisle.
“They both have strong bipartisan credibility,” Eisen said. “It’s a big-tent approach we’ve taken with our election work.”
The coalition has leaned on former federal judge and conservative stalwart J Michael Luttig and liberal-leaning former judge Nancy Gertner, who together helped recruit dozens of ex-judges to file briefs against Trump’s orders.
Anna Baldwin, the director of voting rights litigation at the Campaign Legal Center, described the joint effort before the nation’s highest court.
“We’ve teamed up in the Supreme Court on a brief filed by former state and federal judges, including noted conservative judges, that emphasized just how unlawful and dangerous the president’s efforts to dictate election rules are,” Baldwin said.
Former Justice Department officials say the stakes justify the fight.
“The full-out assault on democracy must be addressed through the courts because Congress has proven itself unwilling and unable to check the undemocratic steps taken by the administration,” Michael Bromwich, a former Justice Department inspector general, told The Guardian.
Tianna Mays, legal director of the Democracy Defenders Fund, struck a defiant note.
“The Trump administration has declared war on the rule of law, yet our democratic guardrails are still holding,” Mays said. “We refuse to stand by idly while this administration flouts the constitution and attempts to eviscerate our institutions.”
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