Democracy Forward uses the courts to defend progress, disrupt extremism, and build for the future – all at once. 

Note from the CREDO team: This September, Democracy Forward is among three amazing groups that will receive a share of our monthly grant. Read this important blog post about Democracy Forward’s important work, then click here to visit CREDODonations.com and cast your vote to help send funding to Democracy Forward to support its efforts—and the efforts of our other outstanding September grantees.

While the vast majority of Americans believe in the promise and potential of democracy, an anti-democratic movement seeks to wield outsized power, undermine democracy, and misuse our courts to roll-back progress and the rights for all people. Extremists in states and local communities have removed books from classrooms, banned health care, and eliminated protections for working families. Far-right attorneys general and special interests bring legal challenges against almost every effort the federal government makes to do the work of the American people. 

And, the US Supreme Court is now all too often friendly territory for those seeking to make an America only for some, not all. This anti-democratic movement is capitalizing on a multi-decade, highly-resourced campaign by far-right legal organizations to set our country and its laws backwards. The courts are now a front line in the battle for democracy, not just the last resort protectors of it. 

At Democracy Forward, we’re proud to equip people and communities  – from librarians to parents to health care providers and public health experts and more – with the tools they need to take their fights for democracy to the courts and beyond. And, we do it free of charge.

Democracy depends on a government that works for all people and is accountable to present and future generations. Through legal advocacy, policy engagement, and public education we are building collective power and advancing a bold, vibrant democracy for all people. And, in just the last year alone, we’ve represented and partnered with more than 100 organizations and communities in the critical fights our country faces today. 

In Arkansas, we are representing librarians who are determined to beat harmful censorship agendas through legal action – and recently stopped a law Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed that would have threatened librarians with criminal penalties from going into effect. In West Virginia, our client GenBioPro, the generic manufacturer of mifepristone, is fighting to ensure that its evidence-based reproductive healthcare medication is not banned. Doctors in Ohio are using their voices in court. Parents in Mississippi are fighting for their public schools. And, we’re working with individual people across the country using their power and voices to defend progress and disrupt extremism — in Texas, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, Kansas, to name just a few.

We have scored important wins, but we have also been on the frontlines on some of the most difficult days for our democracy. We were on the side of millions of people when the Supreme Court rolled back debt relief for student borrowers, and we proudly represented parents and teachers the DeSantis administration is seeking to silence.

We’re incredibly grateful to CREDO and CREDO’s community members for supporting our work.  Every day, but most especially on the difficult ones, we know that democracy is worth the fight — that people are worth the fight. Our team won’t rest until the promise of democracy is achieved for all.