Hi, all, and happy Friday!
Yesterday was both encouraging and heartbreaking. Encouraging as we saw the 11th Circuit Court overturn Judge Canon’s disastrous ruling. Heartbreaking as Republican Senators and Joe Manchin—lawmakers who themselves receive an unlimited number of paid sick days—killed a bill that would have provided just seven to rail workers.
It’s tempting to throw up our hands in disgust after such a vote, to say “America is too broken,” and to resolve to stop trying to fix it. But of course we can’t. Too many lives depend on our continuing to chip away at inequality and injustice, even when it feels like we are pushing an insurmountably large boulder up an impossibly steep slope. So while disgust is an appropriate reaction to yesterday’s vote, inaction is not.
As Nancy Pelosi says, “Don’t agonize, organize.”
So we will move on to the next tactic, which is asking President Biden to issue an Executive Order giving these workers the paid sick days they deserve. If that fails we’ll try something else. We simply won’t stop until workers everywhere get the protections they require.
Just as we won’t stop until this country gets the Supreme Court it deserves.
And the gun laws it needs.
And the climate protections it demands.
And so on.
Hope is an action. A small one, perhaps, but a determined one nonetheless. So let’s take our hopeful actions one more time, knowing that, in so doing, we are guaranteeing that we—not the forces of evil and greed—will eventually prevail.
Call Your Senators (find yours here)
Hi, I'm a constituent calling from [zip]. My name is ______.
Please ask the Senator to push Majority Leader Schumer to bring S. 4573, the Electoral Count Reform and Presidential Transition Improvement Act to the floor for a vote now. We must pass this bill during this session of Congress. I’d also like the Senate to prioritize passing S. 4557, the Right to Contraception Act. Finally, please ask the Senator to fight to reinstate the 2021 Child Tax Credit expansions in the year-end budget negotiations. Thanks. [H/T]
Call Your House Rep (find yours here)
Hi, I'm a constituent calling from [zip]. My name is _______.
Please ask the Congressmember to support H.R. 7647, the Supreme Court Ethics, Recusal, and Transparency Act, to establish a binding code of conduct for Supreme Court justices, the only judges in the U.S. who currently lack one.
Also, please ask the Congressmember to fight to reinstate the 2021 Child Tax Credit expansions in the year-end budget negotiations. Thanks. [H/T]
Extra Credit ✅
Send this to President Biden, either through his contact form if you want to edit it, or using Resistbot if you don’t (quick send: text SIGN PGHBUB to 50409.) [H/T]
While I understand the need to avert a rail strike, I’m extremely disappointed that the U.S. Senate passed legislation, brokered by you, that forces freight rail employees to remain on the job or be fired while voting down a companion bill that would have finally given them seven days of compensated sick leave.
I am writing you to now ask that you remedy this outrageous situation by signing an executive order guaranteeing at least seven days of paid days off for illness to railroad and other workers. This is within your power; Obama did something like it in in 2015, signing an EO requiring all federal contractors to guarantee seven paid sick days to their workers. Unfortunately he specifically exempted the rail industry from it, even though they are federal contractors. It’s your turn to fix this.
Please, unless you want to lose your self-designated “most pro-labor President ever” status, issue an Executive Order immediately stating that all federal contractors governed by the Railway Labor Act must extend 7 paid sick days, as federal contractors under the FSLA and other laws must. Thanks.
Get Smart! 📚
On December 6ht at 3PM ET join several excellent groups for a Roundtable on anti-LGBTQ discrimination and the Supreme Court:
Next week, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in 303 Creative v. Elenis, a case involving whether states can protect LGBTQ people from discrimination in public accommodations. The Court is being asked to let people with religious objections to such laws opt out, a result that could seriously weaken existing anti-discrimination provisions and ultimately allow the exception to swallow the rule.
Join experts from Americans United for the Separation of Church and State, Demand Justice, Lambda Legal, Legal Defense Fund, and National Women's Law Center to discuss the case and the impact that it could have on LGBTQ equality and anti-discrimination laws nationwide.
Win in Georgia! 🍑
[Don’t forget, the whole “Help Us Win in GA” doc is here.]
Y’all, I phonebanked with Fair Fight yesterday—we were calling GA voters who don’t have cell phones (mostly elderly) and have requested a VBM ballot but not yet returned it.
It was one of the most satisfying phonebanks I’ve ever done.
I talked to voters who were unsure how best to return the ballots they’d often only just received—after all, it’s too late to mail them. I looked up early voting locations, gave them ballot drop box hours, and explained other vagaries of Georgia voter law. In almost every case I met with extreme gratitude.
These phonebanks are SO WORTHWHILE and extremely necessary. They need more volunteers. Please sign up for a shift here.
Resistbot Text (new to Resistbot? Go here! And then here.)
[to your Senators] [Quick send: text SIGN PYJNCJ to 50409]
I’m writing because I’m gravely concerned about the legitimacy of the Supreme Court. It’s broken, and if Congress doesn’t act to fix it there’s a real danger Americans will stop accepting its rulings.
As such, I want the Senator to immediately co-sponsor and support S.1141 – the Judiciary Act of 2021. I also want them to co-sponsor S.4177, the Supreme Court Ethics Act, and S.2512 the Judicial Ethics and Anti-Corruption Act.
It has become clear that the Supreme Court is a corrupt and lawless institution, a political tool of those who would overthrow democracy and the people’s will. It’s long past time that they have clear ethical guidelines and laws to hold them accountable. Thanks.
OK, you did it again! You helped save democracy! You’re amazing.
Talk Monday.
Jess
Does Biden have the power to make private companies give paid sick days? Does the President have that kind of power and do we want Presidents to have that kind of power? Seems like a slippery slope. I can't get anyone to give me an answer.