Perryman: “There’s been a lot of trampling on people’s rights. And so we’re filing a lot of cases, but we’ve really been able to make a difference.”
Washington, D.C. – This week, Democracy Forward President and CEO Skye Perryman joined the MeidasTouch Podcast to discuss the fight to protect people and democracy, and the organization’s successes in court against the unlawful chaos of the Trump first 100 days.
Ben Meiselas called Democracy Forward “one of the groups that are on the front lines of fighting for our freedoms.”
Since inauguration, Democracy Forward has filed 63 legal actions, launched 82 investigations, and submitted more than 700 FOIA requests, contributing to the more than 200 lawsuits during Trump’s first 100 days.
Read more about Democracy Forward’s actions to protect the American people through Trump’s first 100 days here.
Key Perryman Excerpts:
- On Democracy Forward’s taking on and winning against the Trump administration: “There’s been a lot of trampling on people’s rights. And so we’re filing a lot of cases, but we’ve really been able to make a difference, I think, with our brave clients across the board. You’ve talked about this before. We stopped the federal funding freeze. We’ve stopped the freeze on infrastructure funds. We have blocked ICE from entering houses of worship. We are involved in the Alien Enemies Act case where we’ve gotten nine members of the Supreme Court who don’t agree on much to say people can’t be removed from this country without process.”
- On Project 2025 and the Trump administration’s unlawful actions: “Over the past year, we planned litigation that we would need to initiate to protect people if these things would come true. And unfortunately, that’s what’s needed in this time. So, we’ve been able to really move fast. We try to move fast and fix things at Democracy Forward, we don’t move fast and break things. And you know, I’ll also say just a testament to our team here and to the lawyers at so many other organizations… This is individual people that are staying up overnight, almost every night, in order to get into court to protect the American people and to win these court orders. And it’s energizing because we see the good it’s doing. We know it’s not enough. We know fundamentally the courts are not a silver bullet. It’s going to take people power, but this is a real, big powerful tool that the people have.”
- On the work of lawyers to protect Americans rights: “Our message in general to the American people, is that there are a number of lawyers across this country that are going to work every single day to make sure that your rights are protected.”