Hi, all, and happy Wednesday.
Sheesh. Every day this newsletter comes out a little later. Sorry. There’s just a lot going on right now, from an activist perspective. Yesterday was nuts, and I suspect nothing will slow down anytime soon. Hopefully this publishing time won’t be the new normal, but if it is please credit that to our being in a very historic moment.
The good news?
🔥 This newsletter has hundreds and hundreds of new subscribers. Welcome!
🔥 I’ve been flooded with requests for Activism 101 workshops.
🔥 Countless numbers of you adopted states yesterday.
🔥 The #bansoffourbodies rally I attended yesterday, despite being an ancillary one in Burbank, was amazing and very well attended. I understand all of them were.
🔥 My remaining PA postcard packets have all vanished — every one picked up in the last 24 hours!
🔥 Resistbot told me this AM that in the last 24 hours 28,831 letters had gone out to people’s officials. ALMOST 30K! (That number is usually somewhere between 1,000-4,000).
🔥 Yesterday a Democrat won a statehouse race in Michigan in a district that went for Trump by double digits. Another Republican running in an even redder district won, but underperformed dramatically.
🔥People, to put it mildly, are extremely fired up about November.
We needed more motivation. We got it.
Let the #RoeWave begin.
Call Your Senators (find yours here)
Hi, I'm a constituent calling from [zip]. My name is ______.
I’m furious that both Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch lied under oath in their confirmation testimony. I want the Senate Judiciary Committee to hold hearings on it, and call both Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski as witnesses. By the way? Our Supreme Court is broken. It’s packed with religious extremists who lie under oath, aren’t even pretending to be apolitical actors, and won’t recuse themselves from cases they are obviously unfit to rule on. Not to mention that one of them is married to a seditious conspiracist. What is the Senator doing about it? Will s/he call for hearings? Will s/he demand a Judicial Code of Ethics? Will s/he support the Judiciary Act to expand the court? Because the thing that is actually unconstitutional is having a politicized Judiciary Branch. It can’t continue. Thanks.
Call Your House Rep (find yours here)
Hi, I'm a constituent calling from [zip]. My name is _______.
I’m furious that both Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch lied under oath in their confirmation testimony. I want the Congressman to call on the Senate Judiciary Committee to hold hearings on it, and call both Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski as witnesses. Our Supreme Court is broken. It’s packed with religious extremists who lie under oath, aren’t even pretending to be apolitical actors, and won’t recuse themselves from cases they are obviously unfit to rule on. Not to mention that one of them is married to a seditious conspiracist. What is the Congressmember doing about it? Will s/he call for hearings? Will s/he demand a Judicial Code of Ethics? Will s/he support the Judiciary Act to expand the court? Because the thing that is actually unconstitutional is having a politicized Judiciary Branch. It can’t continue. Thanks.
Extra Credit ✅
My friend Michelle from Northridge Indivisible made Abortion Justice social media graphics. You can use them instead of your profile picture or as a background. They’re here. Let’s blanket social with them! See below for an example of how they can be used:
Get Smart! 📚
Tonight, Wednesday, May 4th at 7:00 PM EDT please consider joining Markers For Democracy (and some other awesome groups) for a conversation with Ben Wikler, Chair of the WisDems and an INCREDIBLE organizer! (I often refer to him as my “political crush.”)
Since becoming chair of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin in 2019, Ben has created a national model for progressive change that is leading the party to statewide victories. The Washington Post named the WisDems the "2020 State party of the Year" after it helped power Jill Karofsky’s state Supreme Court landslide win and a successful Save The Veto campaign that prevented Republican supermajorities in the WI state legislature.
WisDems have built a year-round team of unprecedented diversity and talent, mobilized tens of thousands of volunteers to elect Democrats up and down the ballot, and built close partnerships with grassroots allies throughout Wisconsin and the nation. They have a LOT to teach us.
Make calls for a pro-choice candidate! ☎️
As I do every week, I’ve signed up to make calls with Sunrise 2022 for Jessica Cisneros today from 3-5 PDT. I’m telling you, y’all, these calls are 🔥 and sooooo fun!
Don’t you want to beat the last “forced birther” Democrat in the House?
Oh, and yes they’ll train you. Use this link to sign up.
Write Pro-Choice POSTCARDS! 🌅
Activate America has launched a postcard program reaching infrequent voters in swing states who are likely pro-choice with a simple message: your freedom is being curtailed, fight back and vote.
Want to join the team? Sign up for addresses and a script HERE. AA doesn’t provide postcards—you’ll have to purchase your own. I order mine here.
(Bonus points: How about starting a postcarding hub at your house! Put together bundles of 20 cards, 20 addresses and a script, and ask your friends to come pick up! We’ve done over 100K through my hub since 2019!)
Resistbot Text (new to Resistbot? Go here! And then here.)
[to your Senators] [H/T heather Cox Richardson, from whom most of this text is copied] [Quick send text SIGN PSDJQC to 50409]
In their nomination hearings, Justices Amy Coney Barrett, Brett Kavanaugh, Neil Gorsuch, Clarence Thomas, and even Samuel Alito–—the presumed majority in favor of overturning Roe v. Wade—assured the members of the Senate Judiciary Committee that they considered Roe v. Wade and the 1992 Planned Parenthood v. Casey decision upholding Roe settled law and had no agenda to challenge them.
Those statements were made under oath by those seeking confirmation to our highest judicial body, and they now appear to have been misleading, at best. It looks increasingly as if at least two of those Justices, Kavanaugh and Gorsuch, lied under oath in their confirmation hearings.
The Senate Judiciary Committee needs to hold hearings on whether this is the case, and call Senators Collins and Murkowski as witnesses. If the justices are found guilty they must be impeached.
One more thing: we need a code of judicial ethics for SCOTUS. This should include a mandate for justices to remain totally nonpolitical in their activities while a sitting Supreme Court Justice. No public events, no Federalist Society dinners, no spouses plotting insurrection.
Without all of the above, the legitimacy of the Supreme Court is gone. Thanks.
OK, you did it again! You helped save democracy! You’re amazing.
Talk tomorrow.
Jess
Thanks. I've been sharing your blog with outraged friends since yesterday. And kudos for using the term, "Forced birther" to describe the people who use state power to coerce women into continuing pregnancies they don't want. That expression needs to become standard.
Hi Jessica. My name is Carole Hakak. I was the one who wrote the letter for Costco to change out of Citibank for their credit cards to purchase at Costco for points. Laurie Mendick said she is waiting for Bill McKibben's group to deal with the letter. Do you know anything about this? I feel it is urgent. I don't know when Costco Admin makes these decisions.
Carole Hakak