Hello, Daily Kos Community, and welcome back to Daily Kos Week in Action! This weekly series from the Daily Kos Activism team tells you what we’re working on and gets your feedback on where we might focus future efforts.
The Daily Kos Activism team is paying close attention to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but while that situation continues to evolve, we’ve also focused on President Joe Biden’s Supreme Court announcement, as well as working to hold Donald Trump accountable for stealing confidential information. Let’s take a look below.
The first Black woman on SCOTUS
President Biden has officially announced his pick to replace retiring Justice Stephen Breyer: Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, who currently serves on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Judge Jackson has a long and distinguished career, including work as a federal public defender and as the vice chair of the U.S. Sentencing Commission, where she worked to both shape criminal justice policy and reduce sentences for individuals incarcerated for drug offenses.
The Supreme Court constantly rules on issues that disproportionately affect the Black community, yet Black women have never been represented on the bench in the Court's entire 200+ year history. Judge Jackson is our chance to change that.
Earlier this month, Daily Kos launched letter campaigns urging the Senate to support Judge Jackson's nomination unilaterally. We've already generated over 144,000 letters to the Senate in support of Judge Jackson, and we will continue building grassroots support until her confirmation.
Judge Jackson’s confirmation hearings start March 21, so show your support by sending a letter to the Senate via the petitions below:
Disappearing documents
With Donald Trump's latest court loss over his attempt to block the release of documents related to Jan. 6, it's past time for him to turn over everything that could be of value to the case, especially since he’s been known to hide documents up his sleeves. The National Archives confirms that they retrieved presidential records from Mar-a-Lago, and some of the documents that Trump illegally took home with him were classified.
That's a violation of the Presidential Records Act of 1978, which establishes that all documents written by, read by, interacted with, or heard by the president must be submitted to the National Archives. That's why we launched a campaign calling on the Department of Justice to investigate Trump's illegal behavior.
Help us hold Trump accountable by taking the action below:
Russian invasion
Russia's unjustified and unwarranted invasion of Ukraine is a stark reminder of how easily an authoritarian government's caprice can threaten the very building blocks on which democracy stands. By heavily targeting residential areas, Russia has forced over 1 million refugees—half of them children—to flee the country in the past week. The situation is only expected to worsen.
European countries are expected to lead refugee efforts, but the U.S. can play an active role in coordinating refugee resettlement, increasing the capacity of our own resettlement program, and protecting Ukrainians currently living in the U.S. from deportation. We must work alongside eastern European countries to ensure equitable access to safe passage for all fleeing the crisis, especially African migrants in Ukraine who are facing racism at the border. Daily Kos has organized a petition to the Biden administration asking them to welcome displaced Ukrainian refugees.
That wraps up this week! Please continue to check in with us each week for more news on what our Activism team is up to, and don’t forget to comment below to let us know which actions you’d like to see from us in the future!