The Task Force for American Democracy held its Democracy Summit Aug. 2 at the ABA Annual Meeting in Chicago and released an analysis that outlined the current threats to our election system while offering ideas for how individual lawyers and bar associations can help protect our system.
August 03, 2024 Top Legal News of the Week
ABA Democracy Summit analyzes threats, actions lawyers can take
The summit was hosted by the co-chairs of the task force, former U.S. Secretary of Homeland Secretary Jeh Charles Johnson, and former federal judge J. Michael Luttig. ABA President Mary Smith, who formed the task force in August 2023, called it the centerpiece of the Annual Meeting.
The analysis concludes that our country and democracy face a wide variety of serious threats and that “too many of us have taken our democracy, our rule of law, our civic norms and our freedoms for granted and have not done the hard work required to keep a free and fair democratic republic.”
The analysis lists several causes for the rise in authoritarianism, including “misinformation and disinformation, the intentional polarization of the American public by both domestic and foreign actors, a disregard for the rule of law and the norms that sustain such legal guardrails and a lack of basic civic knowledge.”
The demonization of the “others” in our communities has led to threats and acts of violence against elected and election officials and members of the judicial branch.
The bipartisan task force joined with nongovernmental organizations and private citizens to help inform the American people of the threats to our institutions and propose solutions. “Listening tours” were held in Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, led by those states’ secretaries of state and local election workers in an effort to rebuild trust in our elections. The “Next Steps” committees in those states have recruited local lawyers to give talks on the rule of law and democracy, to serve as poll workers, to dispel disinformation and to reintroduce civility into the public square.
The analysis also included lists of what individual lawyers and bar associations can do. Individual lawyers can:
- Vote and encourage others to vote
- Become a poll worker
- Give talks in your community or write content for your local newspaper about the rule of law, democracy and elections
- Contact the local election board members and the board’s legal counsel and offer to help
- Serve as a pro bono lawyer protecting election officials through the Election Official Legal Defense Network
- Dispel election misinformation and disinformation in your community as it arises
- Condemn violence or the threat of violence, especially as it relates to our elections and our judicial system
- Share the list with colleagues and members of the bar and encourage them to get involved
Bar associations can:
- Enforce lawyers’ ethical obligations when it comes to the filing of questionable election-related lawsuits
- Host and support seminars and public speaking engagements by members to promote the rule of law, confidence in our elections and the importance of voicing our disagreements in a civil and respectful manner
- Organize joint programming with local chambers of commerce, schools, community groups and others related to the rule of law, civics education and democracy
- Ensure pro-bono legal assistance is available to election officials under attack or connect those officials to the Election Officials Legal Defense Network
The task force will issue a set of specific recommendations in its final report to be issued in late spring or early summer of 2025.
The Democracy Summit kicked off with a program featuring former Merck CEO Ken Frazier and former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina in a dynamic chat moderated by Judy Woodruff, former anchor and managing editor of the PBS News Hour, and the presentation of the Unsung Heroes of Democracy, which honored 22 individuals and organizations who help ensure that our elections are secure and that the democratic ideals set forth in the U.S. Constitution are upheld. It was followed by panels on “The Role of Lawyers and the Justice System in Defending the Constitution and Assuring Trust in Elections,” “Every American is a Civics Teacher” and “How to Remove Contempt from our Political Discourse.”