{"id":226889,"date":"2025-10-15T11:22:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T18:22:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.insidephilanthropy.com\/?p=226889"},"modified":"2025-10-16T09:26:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T16:26:13","slug":"democracy-donors-look-to-legal-challenges-to-slow-authoritarianism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.insidephilanthropy.com\/home\/democracy-donors-look-to-legal-challenges-to-slow-authoritarianism","title":{"rendered":"Democracy Donors Look to Legal Challenges to Slow Authoritarianism"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\u201cSue the bastards\u201d may be the most effective act of resistance in America right now \u2014 and one organization leading the charge to rein in the executive branch is headquartered close to the White House. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since President Donald Trump\u2019s return to power, the national nonprofit Democracy Forward<\/a> has filed hundreds of legal actions and kicked off more than 150 investigations to contest unconstitutional acts, protect civil service employees and safeguard public programs under threat by the Trump-Vance administration.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now led by Skye Perryman, Democracy Forward was launched in 2017 during the early months of Trump\u2019s first presidency. Today, the legal action and public policy group has a staff of around 130, more than half of whom are lawyers. It has also partnered with more than 650 organizations intent on defending democracy in the United States. Democracy Forward operates along two tracks, the 501c3 Democracy Forward Foundation and the 501c4 Democracy Forward, both of which have Perryman as president and CEO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A founding member of Democracy Forward\u2019s litigation team, Perryman returned to the organization and took the helm a few months after January 6, 2021. Perryman previously served as chief legal officer and general counsel of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, where she has said she witnessed the harm extremism had wrought in states across the country in the reproductive care space. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 501c3 foundation\u2019s donors include individuals (small and high dollar), grantor institutions and foundations. The Sandler Foundation gifted the group $16 million between 2018 and 2023, and the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation gave<\/a> around $4 million between 2021 and 2023. More recently, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation gave $2.5 million between 2024 and 2025, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation gifted more than $6.25 million, also during those two years, according to the foundations\u2019 websites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since 2021, the organization has significantly ratcheted up its budget every year. The work is difficult and labor intensive, said Perryman, and Trump 2.0 called for scaling and staffing (including hiring former federal agency attorneys) to meet need, show strength and create a court-based counterattack rooted in disruptive volume. In Democracy Forward\u2019s recently ended fiscal year, its budget was around $50 million; the organization wants to double that figure for the fiscal year ahead. \u201cYou cannot fight autocracy by the spoonful,\u201c Perryman told IP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ten months into this presidential term, the organization shows no sign of letting up on its efforts to challenge, resist or otherwise \u201cmake good trouble\u201d when it comes to challenging Trump\u2019s authoritarian playbook. \u201cSince Inauguration Day, Democracy Forward has gone to court every day on behalf of people of all ideologies and identities,\u201d Perryman told Congress in June<\/a>.\u00a0 \u201cThat\u2019s because since Inauguration Day, the president and his administration have acted beyond the lawful bounds of executive authority, usurping the power of Congress, seeking to eliminate due process of law, ignoring court orders and targeting vulnerable people and organizations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perryman, the product of a Texas public school education, calls it as she sees it. And what she sees: The current occupants of the White House are doing all they can to dismantle American democratic values, policies and laws. \u201cThese anti-democratic and authoritarian actions present overall threats to our nation\u2019s democracy as well as to the safety and security of people living in America,\u201d she said at the June congressional hearing. \u201cRight now, the American people are in danger and our democracy is in crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

See you in court: Challenging policies, forming partnerships, protecting people<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The organization is beyond busy. It\u2019s on a mission to block actions, buy time and otherwise slow Trump\u2019s roll in his effort to dismantle democracy during his Oval Office do-over. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since the start of 2025, Democracy Forward\u2019s legal team has filed to: stop the president\u2019s federal funding freezes; block the decimation of the U.S. Department of Education; ensure the right to due process for all Americans; challenge DOGE and Elon Musk\u2019s attempts to access the personal data of individual Americans; protect religious communities and prevent ICE from entering houses of worship to indiscriminately conduct enforcement operations; contest policies that prolong the detention of immigrant children without their families; and dispute the lack of due process afforded clients \u2014 including men disappeared through an unlawful agreement between the government of El Salvador and the U.S. Department of State. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Democracy Forward has garnered kudos for its deftness at tackling Trump in court, whether challenging executive orders, statutes or regulations. Political reporter Michael Scherer of The Atlantic<\/em><\/a> recently dubbed Democracy Forward \u201cthe single largest source of Trump\u2019s legal troubles,\u201d a moniker the group quickly touted. And Perryman has been singled out for her leadership. She was named one of 2025\u2019s Time <\/em>100<\/a>, the magazine\u2019s annual list of influential people, as well as one of this year\u2019s 500 Most Influential People Shaping Policy<\/a> by Washingtonian<\/em> magazine and one of The NonProfit Time<\/em>s\u2019 Power & Influence Top 50<\/a>.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The organization\u2019s\u00a0 adept use of the judicial branch is the result of a two-year effort by its litigation crew, who crafted potential legal strategies for combating federal policy plans detailed in Project 2025 in the lead-up to the 2024 election. The 900-page political playbook the right-wing think tank Heritage Foundation compiled in preparation for Trump\u2019s return to power gave the lawyers at Democracy Forward plenty to work with. They also coordinated with hundreds of civil society groups and state attorneys general to determine when to collaborate to defend the rule of law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their legal offensive has met with some success. Of the 437 cases filed through October 8\u00a0 against the Trump administration, 141 have led to orders blocking at least part of the president\u2019s efforts, and 193 cases await a ruling, according to a tally by Just Security<\/a>, a litigation tracker that lists challenges to Trump\u2019s administrative actions. Dozens of those rulings are the last word \u2014 meaning there is no avenue for appeal by the government \u2014 while others have been stayed on appeal, including by the conservative majority Supreme Court, as Scherer has noted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Democracy Forward initiated many of the filings, working to find plaintiffs they could represent pro bono to make their legal arguments and illustrate the harm caused by administration  actions. They have relentlessly attempted to block, blunt or otherwise temper Trump\u2019s often mayhem-inducing executive orders, and filed to have other violations of the law and Constitution reversed, delayed or upended. Said Perryman: \u201cOur work demonstrates that the American people are determined to protect their rights, to use lawful and peaceful means of petitioning their government, and, when necessary, to hold their government accountable.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Democracy Forward recently launched and staffed an appellate practice<\/a> to increase its capacity to challenge Trump\u2019s administrative actions and to address a gap left by private law firms bowing out of politically sensitive pro bono appellate litigation in the current charged climate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, there\u2019s still that conservative-led Supreme Court to contend with, which to date has ruled more favorably for the president than district courts. Given that, the legal scorecard could eventually swing in the president\u2019s favor, as the mostly Republican-appointed justices consider legal questions presented by team Trump. And yet\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More than one way to measure success<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Perryman pointed out that court victories are only one way of measuring success. The court of public opinion is also at stake. Pollsters tracking Trump\u2019s approval ratings will likely assess the effect the legal efforts have on the 2026 midterm elections; according to an October Reuters\/Ipso poll<\/a>, Trump\u2019s job approval rating stands at 40%, his second-lowest number since taking office. \u201cDespite the bluster from the White House, the president has been losing public support. He is losing in court in ways that he did not anticipate,\u201d Perryman told The Atlantic<\/em>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Voters have the power to provide the ultimate check, Perryman told IP, and these court fights are a way of alerting and educating the American public to all the ways the Trump administration is overreaching. \u201cIn this new paradigm, success is not one thing,\u201d she said. \u201cSuccess is not just winning a final court order, although I’m convinced we will in some of our cases. Success in this moment is people being able to demonstrate that in this country, the people are still supreme, and they have the power to stop what is, right now, a runaway and autocratic executive branch.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Showcasing the enduring power of individuals is among Democracy Forward\u2019s biggest weapons. \u201cThe No. 1 tool autocratic actors use is to deprive people of their hope and to try to convince people that they have no tools or power left,\u201d said Perryman. \u201cOur team prioritizes matters that are able to affirm the power of people and use the power that people have, including the ability to initiate litigation against their government, in order to make real change and to create inroads.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The way Perryman parses it, there are three levers of power for people when a democracy is backsliding: the streets, the ballot and the courts. \u201cWe don\u2019t win every fight that we take on. Many days are quite devastating for the people that we have the honor of representing. Holding that truth is challenging,\u201d she told The Cut<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

People are being harmed, even terrorized, as a result of Trump\u2019s policies, she told IP, noting that the president has dispatched the military to several cities and threatened certain segments of society with arrest or deportation, essentially driving them underground. It\u2019s relentless and exhausting at every turn. She also told The Cut: \u201cOne of the best pieces of advice that I got and repeat all the time is, \u2018When you\u2019re tired, it\u2019s important to rest. But do not quit.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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