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Protect Democracy is a
nonprofit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...
based in the United States. A nonpartisan group, Protect Democracy seeks to check what it believes are
authoritarian Authoritarianism is a political system characterized by the rejection of political plurality, the use of strong central power to preserve the political ''status quo'', and reductions in democracy, separation of powers, civil liberties, and ...
attacks on U.S. democracy. Protect Democracy states that it seeks to use litigation, legislative and communications strategies, technology, research, and analysis to stand up for free and fair elections, the rule of law, fact-based debate, and a better democracy for future generations. According to ''Time Magazine'', the group is a "defender of America's system of government against the threat of authoritarianism." In 2023, Protect Democracy was named as one of five winners of the 2023 Skoll Award for Social Innovation by the
Skoll Foundation The Skoll Foundation is a private foundation based in Palo Alto, California, Palo Alto, California. The foundation makes grants and investments intended to reduce global poverty. Billionaire entrepreneur Jeffrey Skoll created the foundation in 19 ...
.


Leadership

In 2016, Protect Democracy was co-founded by Ian Bassin, Justin Florence, and Emily Loeb, who served as lawyers in the
White House Counsel The White House Counsel is a senior staff appointee of the president of the United States whose role is to advise the president on all legal issues concerning the president and their administration. The White House counsel also oversees the Off ...
’s Office under former
President Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. Ob ...
. In forming the organization, Protect Democracy's founders consulted with political scientists who later became members of the group's board of advisers, including
Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...
political scientists
Steven Levitsky Steven Robert Levitsky (born January 17, 1968) is an American political scientist and professor of government at Harvard University and a senior fellow for democracy at the Council on Foreign Relations. He is also a senior fellow at the Kette ...
and Daniel Ziblatt. Bassin, a former White House associate counsel, serves as the executive director of Protect Democracy. He was named a " MacArthur genius" in 2023. The following year, Bassin and Florence were named to the ''Time'' 100 Next list in an article written by
John Dean John Wesley Dean III (born October 14, 1938) is a disbarred American attorney who served as White House Counsel for U.S. President Richard Nixon from July 1970 until April 1973. Dean is known for his role in the cover-up of the Watergate scan ...
, former
White House Counsel The White House Counsel is a senior staff appointee of the president of the United States whose role is to advise the president on all legal issues concerning the president and their administration. The White House counsel also oversees the Off ...
to
Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 until Resignation of Richard Nixon, his resignation in 1974. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican ...
.


Activities


Accountability of candidates and elected officials

Protect Democracy advocates for maintaining a strong separation between the White House and the
Justice Department A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice, is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a ...
. In 2020, the group collected letters from hundreds of DOJ alumni, calling for former Attorney General
William Barr William Pelham Barr (born May 23, 1950) is an American attorney who served as United States Attorney General, United States attorney general in the administration of President George H. W. Bush from 1991 to 1993 and again in the first adminis ...
to step down. The DOJ alumni also claimed the Mueller report presented enough evidence to charge former President
Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...
with
obstruction of justice In United States jurisdictions, obstruction of justice refers to a number of offenses that involve unduly influencing, impeding, or otherwise interfering with the justice system, especially the legal and procedural tasks of prosecutors, investiga ...
. Protect Democracy has criticized both Democrats and
Republicans Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...
over resisting
congressional oversight Congressional oversight is oversight by the United States Congress over the executive branch, including the numerous U.S. federal agencies. Congressional oversight includes the review, monitoring, and supervision of federal agencies, programs, a ...
. In 2021, the group represented 66 former members of Congress, including two dozen Republicans, challenging Trump’s efforts to block the January 6th Select Committee from accessing his presidential records. During the 2020 election, Bassin urged then-candidate
Joe Biden Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. (born November 20, 1942) is an American politician who was the 46th president of the United States from 2021 to 2025. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he served as the 47th vice p ...
to reverse course after declaring he would defy a subpoena if called to testify in Trump’s first impeachment. Biden eventually backed off his comments. Following the January 6th Capitol riots, Protect Democracy represented Capitol Police officers suing Trump under the Klan Act for his role in inciting the crowd. In February 2022, the Court denied Trump’s motion to dismiss the case. In an amicus brief filed in the case, the DOJ rejected Trump’s claim to have blanket
immunity Immunity may refer to: Medicine * Immunity (medical), resistance of an organism to infection or disease * ''Immunity'' (journal), a scientific journal published by Cell Press Biology * Immune system Engineering * Radiofrequence immunity ...
from civil liability for his conduct in office. In December 2023, a three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit ruled that Trump was not immune from prosecution for his actions on January 6. Protect Democracy also represented Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman in a case against former Trump aides and allies, accusing them of intimidating and retaliating against him for testifying against Trump during his first impeachment. The group sued the 2016 Trump campaign on behalf of Jessica Denson, a former Trump campaign staffer, in an attempt to invalidate the
non-disclosure agreement A non-disclosure agreement (NDA), also known as a confidentiality agreement (CA), confidential disclosure agreement (CDA), proprietary information agreement (PIA), or secrecy agreement (SA), is a legal contract or part of a contract between at le ...
s (NDAs) that she and other staffers were made to sign. Denson got her own NDA overturned in 2021, and two years later, a judge ruled that her victory extends to all who signed the NDA.


First Amendment work

Protect Democracy’s litigation has advocated on behalf of
First Amendment First most commonly refers to: * First, the ordinal form of the number 1 First or 1st may also refer to: Acronyms * Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters, an astronomical survey carried out by the Very Large Array * Far Infrared a ...
rights. In 2019, the organization filed a lawsuit on behalf of Reverend Kaji Douša, challenging a previously secret
Department of Homeland Security The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is the U.S. federal executive department responsible for public security, roughly comparable to the interior, home, or public security ministries in other countries. Its missions invol ...
(DHS) surveillance operation that targeted activists, journalists, lawyers, and faith leaders, all of whom spoke out against the Trump administration. In 2023, a federal judge in California ruled that
U.S. Customs and Border Protection United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is the largest federal law enforcement agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security. It is the country's primary border control organization, charged with regulating and facilita ...
and the DHS violated Douša’s rights by retaliating against her for ministering to migrants and refugees. In another 2023 lawsuit filed on behalf of
Penguin Random House Penguin Random House Limited is a British-American multinational corporation, multinational conglomerate (company), conglomerate publishing company formed on July 1, 2013, with the merger of Penguin Books and Random House. Penguin Books was or ...
,
PEN America PEN America (formerly PEN American Center), founded in 1922, and headquartered in New York City, is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization whose goal is to raise awareness for the protection of free expression in the United States and worldwide th ...
, and individuals in Florida, Protect Democracy worked with Ballard Spahr to challenge the constitutionality of the
Escambia County School District Escambia County Public Schools (ECPS), officially the Escambia County School District (ECSD), is the organization responsible for the administration of public schools in all of Escambia County, Florida, in the United States. The district current ...
’s removal and restriction of books discussing race, racism, or
LGBTQ LGBTQ people are individuals who are lesbian, Gay men, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or questioning (sexuality and gender), questioning. Many variants of the initialism are used; LGBTQIA+ people incorporates intersex, Asexuality, asexual, ...
issues from public school libraries. A third lawsuit, filed on behalf of several businesses in Florida, challenged the state’s Stop WOKE Act. In March 2024, a three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit of Appeals upheld a lower court’s injunction blocking enforcement of the law, ruling that Florida businesses' speech rights were improperly restricted.


Law for Truth

The group also launched "Law for Truth", which uses
defamation Defamation is a communication that injures a third party's reputation and causes a legally redressable injury. The precise legal definition of defamation varies from country to country. It is not necessarily restricted to making assertions ...
law to impose accountability on those who spread election disinformation. Law for Truth has brought lawsuits on behalf of Ruby Freeman and Wandrea' ArShaye Moss, two election workers in Georgia, and a
postmaster A postmaster is the head of an individual post office, responsible for all postal activities in a specific post office. When a postmaster is responsible for an entire mail distribution organization (usually sponsored by a national government), ...
in Pennsylvania, who suffered online and offline threats to their safety due to false media stories about their alleged involvement in election fraud. Freeman and Moss, who sued One America News Network,
Rudy Giuliani Rudolph William Louis Giuliani ( , ; born May 28, 1944) is an American politician and Disbarment, disbarred lawyer who served as the 107th mayor of New York City from 1994 to 2001. He previously served as the United States Associate Attorney ...
and '' The Gateway Pundit'', were awarded the
Presidential Citizens Medal The Presidential Citizens Medal is an award bestowed by the president of the United States. It is the second-highest civilian award in the United States and is second only to the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Established by executive order on N ...
for their defense of the 2020 election. In July 2023, Giuliani conceded that the statements he made about Freeman and Moss were false. In December of that year, a federal court ordered Giuliani to pay Freeman and Moss $148 million in compensatory and punitive damages. Protect Democracy's case representing Robert Weisenbach, the Republican postmaster in Pennsylvania, was settled out of court by Project Veritas and James O'Keefe. In another lawsuit, the group represents
Maricopa County Maricopa County () is a county in the south-central part of the U.S. state of Arizona. As of the 2020 census the population was 4,420,568, or about 62% of the state's total, making it the fourth-most populous county in the United States and ...
Recorder Stephen Richer, who sued former Arizona gubernatorial candidate
Kari Lake Kari Lake Halperin ( Lake; ; born August 23, 1969) is an American political figure and former television news anchor who has served as the special advisor to the United States Agency for Global Media since 2025 under President Donald Trump. S ...
for defamation over claims she made about Richer’s role in the
2022 Arizona gubernatorial election The 2022 Arizona gubernatorial election occurred on November 8, 2022, to elect the next governor of Arizona, concurrently with other federal and state elections. Incumbent Republican Governor Doug Ducey was term-limited and ineligible t ...
. The group also sued the makers and promoters of the film '' 2,000 Mules'', representing Mark Andrews, a voter who legally placed his ballot and those of his family into a dropbox ahead of the 2020 election. In May 2024,
Salem Media Group Salem Media Group, Inc. (formerly Salem Communications Corporation) is an American radio broadcaster, internet content provider, and magazine and book publisher based in Irving, Texas, targeting audiences interested in Christian values and wh ...
(one of the parties being sued) issued a statement apologizing to Andrews and announcing that Salem had removed the film from its platforms.


National Task Force on Election Crises

In 2019, Protect Democracy also convened the nonpartisan "National Task Force on Election Crises," a cross-ideological group of more than 50 experts on elections, security, public health, and other areas. The Task Force issues analyses and reports, holding press briefings on how the electoral system is supposed to work for the purpose of building resiliency against efforts to subvert the electoral process.


Preventing abuses of emergency power

Protect Democracy represented
El Paso County, Texas El Paso County is the westernmost county in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 census, the population was 865,657, making it the ninth-most populous county in the state of Texas. Its county seat is the city of El Paso, the sixth-mos ...
and the
Border Network for Human Rights The Border Network for Human Rights, or BNHR, is a nonprofit organization based in El Paso, Texas, that advocates for immigration reform and human rights to create the political, economic, and social conditions in which every human being is equal ...
in a 2019 lawsuit, alleging that Trump’s declaration of a national emergency to build a wall on the southern border violated federal statutes, including the
National Emergencies Act The National Emergencies Act (NEA) (, codified at –1651) is a United States federal law enacted to end all previous national emergencies and to formalize the emergency powers of the president. The Act empowers the president to activate spe ...
and Consolidated Appropriations Act. The lawsuit was ultimately rendered moot by the
Supreme Court In most legal jurisdictions, a supreme court, also known as a court of last resort, apex court, high (or final) court of appeal, and court of final appeal, is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...
after changes in policy under the Biden administration. The group has written amicus briefs focused on executive overreach in relation to two of the Supreme Court’s cases involving deliberations over presidential emergency powers: A Trump administration migration restriction in ''Arizona v. Mayorkas'' and the Biden administration’s student debt cancellation program in '' Biden v. Nebraska''. The group argued that both cases together represented an opportunity to “ roposea standard for how the Court should consider challenges to executive actions based on congressional delegations of emergency powers.”


Advocating recusals from elected officials running their own elections

Protect Democracy has challenged Republican and Democratic officials over claims that they were misusing their offices to improperly interfere in elections. In 2018, Protect Democracy sued then-
Georgia Secretary of State The Secretary of state (U.S. state government), secretary of state of the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia is an elected official with a wide variety of responsibilities, including supervising elections and maintaining public records. ...
Brian Kemp Brian Porter Kemp (born November 2, 1963) is an American politician serving as the 83rd governor of Georgia since 2019. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, Kemp served as the state's 27th Georgia Secretary of Sta ...
, seeking his
recusal Recusal is the legal process by which a judge, juror, or other adjudicator steps aside from participating in a case due to potential bias, conflict of interest, or appearance of impropriety. This practice is fundamental to ensuring fairness and ...
from overseeing a
recount An election recount is a repeat tabulation of votes cast in an election that is used to determine the correctness of an initial count. Recounts will often take place if the initial vote tally during an election is extremely close. Election reco ...
in an election in which he was also a candidate. The group also filed a lawsuit against then-Florida Governor
Rick Scott Richard Lynn Scott ( Myers; born December 1, 1952) is an American attorney, businessman, politician, and United States Navy, Navy veteran serving as the Seniority in the United States Senate, senior United States senator from the state of F ...
, claiming the Constitution sets limits on an elected official’s ability to exercise governmental powers over their own election. Protect Democracy later challenged
Mississippi Attorney General The attorney general of Mississippi is a statewide elected office in the United States, U.S. state of Mississippi. The attorney general is a state constitutional officer, constitutional officer responsible for representing state agencies in lega ...
Jim Hood James Matthew Hood (born May 15, 1962) is an American lawyer and politician who served as the 39th Attorney General of Mississippi from 2004 to 2020. Hood was first elected Attorney General in 2003, defeating Republican Scott Newton. A former ...
, a Democrat, for appearing to use his governmental position to advance his own candidacy for governor.


Preventing voter suppression

The organization has also pushed back on efforts to impinge the
right to vote Suffrage, political franchise, or simply franchise is the right to vote in representative democracy, public, political elections and referendums (although the term is sometimes used for any right to vote). In some languages, and occasionally in ...
. In 2022, the group filed a lawsuit against individuals and organizations conspiring to intimidate Arizona voters who were using drop boxes to deliver their ballots in the 2022 election. Days later, a federal court issued an order barring the defendants in the case from confronting, photographing, and
doxing Doxing or doxxing is the act of publicly providing personally identifiable information Personal data, also known as personal information or personally identifiable information (PII), is any information related to an identifiable person. The ...
voters, in addition to carrying guns and wearing body armor near drop boxes. In 2023, it was one of the groups that filed a lawsuit challenging Virginia’s lifetime ban on voting for anyone convicted of any
felony A felony is traditionally considered a crime of high seriousness, whereas a misdemeanor is regarded as less serious. The term "felony" originated from English common law (from the French medieval word "''félonie''") to describe an offense that r ...
. The suit argues that Virginia’s disenfranchisement provision violates a little-known
federal law Federal law is the body of law created by the federal government of a country. A federal government is formed when a country has a central government as well as regional governments, such as subnational states or provinces, each with constituti ...
: The Virginia Readmission Act, a Reconstruction-era statute designed to protect the newly-enshrined rights, including the right to vote, of formerly enslaved citizens.


Accountability for political violence

Protect Democracy has filed two lawsuits aimed at deterring voter intimidation and political violence. The cases involved Biden-Harris campaigners and a bus driver who were on a campaign bus in October 2020, when they were ambushed by a “Trump Train” in Texas. One case, ''Davis v. Cisneros'', targeted the drivers of the “Trump Train” for harassment and intimidation. The second case, ''Cervini v. Stapp'', was filed against San Marcos law enforcement officials who allegedly failed to provide a police escort during the attack. The city of San Marcos and three of its police officials agreed to a monetary settlement, admitting in the settlement agreement of falling short of their policing standards. In the agreement, they also committed to institute police training on responding to political violence and voter intimidation. A jury in the other case found the lead organizer of the "Trump Train" guilty of using threats to prevent the Biden-Harris campaigners from engaging in political activity.


Electoral Count Act

Protect Democracy advocated for passage of the
Electoral Count Act The Electoral Count Act of 1887 (ECA) (, later codified at Title 3 of the United States Code, Title 3, Chapter 1) is a United States federal law that added to procedures set out in the Constitution of the United States for the counting of Uni ...
(ECA), which was passed into law in 2022. According to ''
Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...
'' columnist Greg Sargent, the group “wrote one of the earliest blueprints on how to reform heECA.”


Reports


"The Authoritarian Playbook"

The group has released research on "The Authoritarian Playbook," which can be used to distinguish
authoritarianism Authoritarianism is a political system characterized by the rejection of political plurality, the use of strong central power to preserve the political ''status quo'', and reductions in democracy, separation of powers, civil liberties, and ...
from other forms of politics. This guide catalogs the seven basic tactics that are almost always present in examples of
democratic backsliding Democratic backsliding or autocratization is a process of regime change toward autocracy in which the exercise of political power becomes more arbitrary and repressive. The process typically restricts the space for public contest and politi ...
around the world: * Politicizing independent institutions * Spreading disinformation * Aggrandizing executive power and undermining checks & balances * Quashing dissent * Marginalizing vulnerable communities * Corrupting elections * Stoking violence In 2024, the affiliated 501(c)(4) United to Protect Democracy issued "The Authoritarian Playbook for 2025," which details the alleged threat a second Trump administration would pose to American democracy.


Election-related reports

Protect Democracy has issued reports and policy proposals examining the links between anti-democratic extremism and the U.S. electoral system. In partnership with Interfaith America, the group also developed the "Faith in Elections Playbook," which supports faith-based communities with resources to engage in the 2024 election. In 2024, the group issued a report on the rise of mass voter challenges, explaining how such challenges are used to disrupt the electoral process.


State-level election subversion report

In 2021, along with the States United Democracy Center and Law Forward, Protect Democracy issued an initial report on state legislative attempts that threaten to subvert elections. It has subsequently released updates to the report.


Guide to identifying a politicized investigation

In response to the federal and state investigations against Trump, the group issued a guide seeking to tell the difference between politicized investigations and normal, appropriate efforts by law enforcement.


Advocating for long-term reforms


"Rethinking Our Democracy" series

Collaborating with the
University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...
's Center for Effective Government, Protect Democracy experts have hosted two “Rethinking Our Democracy” series in ''
The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...
'', proposing institutional reforms to strengthen American democracy.


Proportional representation

Protect Democracy has also advocated for reforming the U.S. system of government toward proportional representation. In 2022, the group organized a coalition of more than 200 pro-democracy scholars to advocate for abolishing single-member districts.


Restoring fusion voting

In 2024, Protect Democracy represented a group of Kansas voters who argued their third party was illegally kept off the state's general election ballot. The effort is part of a broader push in states like Kansas to legalize so-called fusion voting, which allows more than one party to nominate the same political candidate.


Software


VoteShield

Protect Democracy developed the software VoteShield, which uses publicly available data to track changes to voter rolls, identifying potentially suspicious irregularities.


See also

* Democratic backsliding in the United States *
Democratization Democratization, or democratisation, is the structural government transition from an democratic transition, authoritarian government to a more democratic political regime, including substantive political changes moving in a democratic direction ...
* Efforts to overturn the 2020 US Presidential election


References

{{Reflist


External links

Protect Democracy'
press mentions
page on the organization's website Political advocacy groups in the United States Non-profit organizations based in the United States Organizations established in 2016 2016 establishments in the United States Democracy promotion