I know we've sent you lots of emails asking you to act in the last few weeks, as we've geared up to prevent the impending Republican judicial takeover. Now we're pretty much down to the wire, with the vote on the "nuclear option" to pack the courts with radical judges coming in the next few days, and thought to be too close call. So we really are pulling out all the stops, and I have one big request: as a final attempt to sound the alarm about Republicans' plans, we're organizing 24-hour "Citizen Filibusters" in front of courthouses from coast to coast. Will you post a location, and call the media, so other MoveOn members in your area can join you for this critical action? http://www.moveonpac.org/event/citizenfilibusters/?id=5547-1346069-Yt8vudy0lD.Y6ZwRisXx7g&t=3 If Republicans succeed, they'll have complete power to reshape the Supreme Court, appointing justices who oppose worker protections, women's rights, and environmental laws. This could be the most important decision the Senate makes this decade, because the impact of these lifetime appointments will be felt for a generation. The round-the-clock citizen filibusters begin nationwide on Tuesday, May 24 starting at 12 Noon. Will you help? Please click below to get started. If you can't sign up as a host look for an event in your community that you could attend. All we really need is for you to select a location if there isn't one setup in your community. http://www.moveonpac.org/event/citizenfilibusters/?id=5547-1346069-Yt8vudy0lD.Y6ZwRisXx7g&t=4 We'll provide a detailed guide to help you organize and invite other MoveOn members to participate as citizen filibusterers. The citizen filibusters will simulate the Senate filibuster that has been a critical part of our democratic system of checks and balances for more than 200 years. We're following an inspiring example. At 11:00 a.m. on April 26, a group of students at Princeton University in New Jersey started a round-the-clock mock filibuster outside a campus building named for the family of Senator Frist. Through rain, exams and the dead of night their speeches continued for more than two weeks non-stop with visits by distinguished professors including a Nobel Prize-winning physicist, congressmen, senators and lots of students Democrats, Republicans and Independents. The citizen filibusters are an important way to demonstrate broad opposition to the Republican drive for absolute power. Organizing a citizen filibuster might sound like a lot of work but we've got all the information you need. All you really need to do is post a location. We'll invite other MoveOn members in your area to join in. Then, if possible, you alert the media or ask one of your attendees to do it. We know you might have to take off work, school or find child care but this is one of those moments when we really need your help. Please make a commitment to organize a 24-hour citizen filibuster now. http://www.moveonpac.org/event/citizenfilibusters/?id=5547-1346069-Yt8vudy0lD.Y6ZwRisXx7g&t=5 The Senate is currently debating the nominations of two judges Janice Rogers Brown and Priscilla Owen. Here is a summary of how bad they are and why it is important that they don't become judges. Janice Rogers Brown, a Justice on the California Supreme Court, would threaten the most basic protections for workers and the environment that have kept our country strong since the Great Depression. She follows a radical judicial philosophy, (often called "Constitution in Exile") that says courts have a duty to block Congress from interfering with a corporation's "right" to profitably pollute, or an employer's "right" to demand unlimited hours at any wage from their employees. On the state Supreme Court she has attacked California's anti-discrimination statute, affordable housing laws, fees levied against major urban polluters, and laws that protects whistleblowers from retaliation by their employers and consumers from corporate fraud. Pricilla Owen, a Justice on the Texas Supreme Court, has been repeatedly admonished by her own conservative colleagues for what Attorney General Alberto Gonzales described as her "unconscionable judicial activism." As a candidate for the Supreme Court job Owen defied ethics standards by accepting substantial campaign contributions from giant corporations including Enron and Halliburton and then later issuing rulings in their favor. In case after case where individual rights came into conflict with corporate profit, Owens has sided with the latter including cases where a liquor vendors' negligence left a nine-year-old with permanent brain damage and where major companies have argued their right to unfettered profit should exempt them from all local environmental laws. Thanks for all you do. Eli Pariser P.S. Check out the Filibuster for Democracy website started by the students at Princeton who organized the mock filibuster outside the Frist building on their campus. http://www.FilibusterFrist.com/ Here are some key points to talk about if somebody asks you what is going on.
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