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Lots of EOs, Lots of Lawsuits These Days — Sure. But the Work to Make the Courts More Open and Accountable Continues.

If there were any outstanding questions as to how the next four years would proceed, the flurry of executive orders since Jan. 20, and the lawsuits seeking to stop the EOs, have put them to rest.

Fix the Court may not file lawsuits (save over FOIA) or take political positions, but we do play a unique and critical role in ensuring one branch of government is as ethical and transparent as can be, even as the world around us appears to be engaged in ethical backsliding. Here’s an update on our endeavors:

1. We’re pressing for greater public access to critical federal court cases.

We’re in touch with court personnel in all the jurisdictions where lawsuits against Trump executive orders have been filed to advocate for livestreaming of those proceedings. And we held several meetings with Democrats and Republicans on the Hill last week to discuss improving public access to court filings. No one else is doing this work.

2. We’re working with congressional leaders to ensure there’s enough funding to protect judges and justices.

We’ve seen a precipitous rise in threats against judges like Chutkan, Kacsmaryk and Cannon and justices like Kavanaugh and Sotomayor, and this is unacceptable. We expect that the judges handling Trump administration lawsuits will soon receive a barrage of threats, as these judges did eight years ago. Does the U.S. Marshals Service have the funding or manpower to handle all this? And why is there no nominee for director yet? We’re pushing to make sure USMS has the resources it needs.

3. We’re working to protect the 30,000 workers in the third branch.

Few people remember that it was President Trump who in 2018 signed the law that vastly improved anti-harassment protections for congressional staff. This past fall, a bipartisan, bicameral bill to ensure that judiciary staff have these same protections was introduced, and we’re working to ensure the measure is reintroduced and is advanced through the House and Senate Judiciary Committees.

4. We’re still doing our bread and butter.

This year, we’ll continue doing the work you’ve come to expect from us.

We just released a report on the dozens of lavish gifts lower court judges have accepted of late.

We’re working to get more states to put their judges’ and justices’ financial disclosures online and to push the ABA to adopt new model recusal rules that would encourage fairness and improve impartiality.

And Fix the Court will continue to lead the charge for SCOTUS term limits, enforceable ethics at SCOTUS, oversight of judicial travel, banning gifts across the third branch and more.

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