LDF Condemns Escalating Attacks on Civil Society Organizations

Read a PDF of our statement here.

In recent days, the Trump Administration and its allies in Congress have escalated their far-reaching campaign to intimidate and silence civil society groups. On Thursday, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform notified the Democracy Defenders Fund - a nonprofit focused on defending democracy and the rule of law - that it is under congressional investigation. Meanwhile, federal agents from ICE and HHS made unannounced visits to the Amica Center for Immigrant Rights, seeking access to client records without a warrant. These moves follow the Justice Department's April indictment of the Southern Poverty Law Center, a civil rights organization dedicated to fighting white supremacy and other forms of injustice, whose leader was hauled to the Hill for questioning in front of the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday.

In response to these developments, Legal Defense Fund (LDF) President and Director-Counsel Janai Nelson issued the following statement:

"The Trump Administration is weaponizing government resources in a dangerous and chilling escalation of attacks on nonprofits working to support and defend democracy. Rather than exerting its independence as part of a coequal branch of the federal government, the House Oversight Committee, led by its Chairman James Comer, has become nothing more than a rubber stamp for President Trump's crusade to persecute those he perceives as personal enemies and intimidate the civil society groups that speak out against him.

"We will not be silent in the face of such grave and blatant abuses of power. We stand steadfastly behind the Democracy Defenders Fund, the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Amica Center for Immigrant Rights, and any other nonprofit that becomes ensnared in this Administration and Congress' widening campaign to target groups they disagree with. Speaking truth to power and holding our leaders to account are cornerstones of our republic. We call on members of Congress and the public to speak out against President Trump and his enablers' efforts to obliterate these fundamental principles."

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Founded in 1940, the Legal Defense Fund (LDF) is the nation's first civil rights legal organization. LDF has been completely separate from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) since 1957, though it was founded under the leadership of Thurgood Marshall while he was at the NAACP. LDF's Thurgood Marshall Institute (TMI) is a division of LDF that undertakes innovative research and houses LDF's archive. In all media attributions, please refer to us as the Legal Defense Fund or LDF (do not include NAACP) and refer to the Institute as LDF's Thurgood Marshall Institute or TMI.