Every time a Republican president has sent an extremist judicial nominee to the Senate, we have been there. Researching their records. Briefing senators. Mobilizing Americans who understood what a lifetime appointment really means. For more than 40 years, that has been central to People For the American Way's work.
This term, that work has been relentless. Trump has moved aggressively to fill federal courts at every level with extreme ideological nominees – and we have opposed them every step of the way. We have scrutinized their records, flagged their most extreme positions, and fought to make sure senators and the public know exactly who they would be confirming to a lifetime seat on the federal bench. These are not just abstract battles. The judges being confirmed today will be shaping American law for decades to come.
And now, the stakes may soon get even higher.
What had been limited to quiet conversations in Washington is now being discussed much more openly: the possibility that Justice Samuel Alito could retire at the end of the Supreme Court's current term this June.[1] We have spent months preparing for this exact moment.
We know exactly how this will unfold: if Alito announces plans to step down, Trump will move fast. He will nominate a young, ideologically extreme judge. Maybe a crony who has already shown him loyalty and obedience. Or maybe someone drawn from the same right-wing legal pipeline that has been reshaping our courts for years. These are judges who have built their careers around rolling back reproductive rights, weakening voter protections, limiting LGBTQ+ equality, and expanding executive power with few checks. A new Alito-style justice – but decades younger – could lock in that agenda on the nation's highest court well into the 2050s.
Think about what that means in practice. The right to abortion was already taken away by this far-right Court. Voting rights have been chipped away, case by case, year by year. Hard-won protections for LGBTQ+ people remain in the crosshairs. A new Trump appointee would not be a swing vote. They would be a reliable, committed right-wing vote to continue dismantling the legal architecture that protects the rights of millions of Americans.
We know how to fight this battle. We have done it before – in Democratic administrations and Republican alike, in confirmation fights that made headlines and in quieter skirmishes over lower court seats that shaped the law just as much. We know how to scrutinize a nominee's record, build the coalitions needed to hold senators accountable, and make sure the public understands what is at stake.
But we need to be ready before a vacancy is announced – not after. Opposition research, coalition-building, and public education campaigns take time and resources. The MAGA right has been preparing their list of nominees for years. We cannot afford to play catch-up.
We are building the capacity to respond immediately if a vacancy is announced, and that work has to be in place before the moment arrives. A contribution today helps fund the research, communications, and organizing required to challenge a nominee from the very start of the confirmation process.
Supreme Court justices serve for life. The decisions they make – on who controls their own body, who can freely cast a ballot, who is protected under the law – echo for generations. We have seen what this Court can do when it moves in one direction without restraint. We know what another seat in the wrong hands could mean.
The courts won't wait. Neither can we. Neither can you.
