April 2, 2025 - A Good Election Night, 3 Days to Hands Off

Signs of resistance from Senate Dems, MAGAifying our military, resisting forced registration of immigrants... and on to the next election!

Apr 02, 2025

Contact all members of Congress:
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By email: Congress.gov
By US mail: Representatives / Senators
By fax: Representatives / Senators
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Contact White House or other federal agencies:
usa.gov/federal-agencies

If you have questions, comments, and especially submissions for actions, please email us at roganslisttips@gmail.com!

BOOKER SPEECH, MULTIPLE HOLDS – LET THIS BE THE BEGINNING

In the last two days, we have seen Senate Democrats showing some signs that they are going to rise to the challenge of the moment. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) held the floor for a record-breaking 25 hr, 5 minutes to discuss Trump’s threats to Medicaid, Social Security, our economy and our democracy. While they made fewer headlines, Senator Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) has committed to putting holds on nominees for the Department of Veterans Affairs over the Trump-Musk effort to gut the department, and Senator Adam Schiff (D-CA) is putting a hold on the nomination of interim U.S. Attorney for Washington, D.C. Ed Martin to hold the job permanently. Booker’s speech ran on so long it delayed an effort from Democratic senators to force a vote on the anti-Canada tariffs, which should come tomorrow.

These are the sorts of opposition tactics and procedural tools Rogan’s List subscribers and activists across the country have been begging them to make use of – and that Rogan’s List folks in particular have been urging them to use on Ed Martin and tariffs. As Booker made clear, our calls, emails, letters and posts are getting through to them. They know we want to fight aggressively and leave no option on the table to protect our country, and our pressure is getting results.

That being said, there are a lot of weapons still available, and they are still not fully committed to using the ones they have out, as they demonstrated by not obstructing the vote to confirm Matt Whittaker as US Ambassador to NATO immediately after Booker’s speech ended. Let’s contact them and let them know we appreciate they are taking real steps towards the fight the crisis calls for, and that we are still looking for them to do more – a lot more. We can use scripts and language here.

TRUMP IS GETTING AWAY WITH PURGING GENERALS

Trump’s unprecedented purge of the U.S. military has faded from the headlines, becoming just another forgotten signpost on the road to authoritarianism. The Senate has quietly confirmed his Army, Navy, and deputy defense secretaries with multiple Democratic votes for each (roll calls here, here, here) and very little fuss. Calls from former secretaries of defense for hearings on the firings and to refuse to confirm any new Pentagon nominees until they got them have gone unheeded.

This is a fight we need to have, especially in light of Trump’s saber-rattling abroad, increasing demonstrations of power to crush dissent at home, and the shockingly irresponsible and dangerous behavior of his national security team in Signalgate. And we have an opportunity to do so now. Retired General Dan Caine, Trump’s pick to replace the fired Joint Chiefs Chairman General Charles “CQ” Brown,” had his hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee yesterday. He is now expected to sail through. But it doesn’t have to happen.

We have seen some increased aggressiveness from Democrats this week, and we should continue that approach. Let’s urge our senators to, at the very minimum, oppose Caine and all replacements for the fired senior officers in protest of the firings, and make sure they communicate to the country why. We can also ask them to put holds on these nominees and force as much debate as possible on their confirmations, giving them a chance to ring the alarm about the dangers of Trump’s purges. We can use scripts and language here.

SAY NO TO FORCED REGISTRATION FOR UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRANTS

The Trump Administration is setting another trap for undocumented immigrants, attempting to force them to “register” with the U.S. government. If these folks fail to do so, they are now threatened with criminal charges along with detention and deportation – but if they give ICE their personal information, they’re easier for them to imprison or remove.

Like so much of their anti-immigrant work, this reeks of the more shameful episodes in U.S. history like internment and the state-sponsored harassment of American Muslims after 9/11. Folks are already afraid to go to work, to send their kids to school, and to live their lives because they might be snatched off the street, and this will make matters even worse.

While lawsuits are underway, this new rule is currently set to take effect April 11th. The National Immigration Law Center is asking us to speak up against it beforehand. We can learn more here, submit a public comment here, and NILC has a form here we can sign on to here. Let’s get as many folks as possible to put their names on it. Lastly, NILC has built a Know Your Rights guide for undocumented folks on this new requirement here – let’s be sure to share it with our communities.

WISCONSIN’S WON, GET READY TO TURN VIRGINIA BLUE IN 2025

Wisconsin State Supreme Court Project Winner Susan Crawford Decision Desk HQ

We got our report card, and so did Trump and Musk. We should be a lot happier. While as predicted Republicans won both House special elections, both candidates ran far worse than Trump and their predecessors, a huge Democratic overperformance. And in Wisconsin, Judge Susan Crawford rolled to victory, securing a swing seat on the state supreme court and defeating Elon Musk’s money. We just sent MAGA a message: they have not won over the country.

For those of us eager to get started on dealing Trump and Musk another blow, we’re now getting ramped up for the next major set of elections! In November (with primaries in June), Virginians will decide whether a Democrat or Republican will be their governor, and which party controls their House of Delegates. A sweep would give us a trifecta again.

When Democrats last controlled Virginia’s state government, they expanded access to voting, passed climate protection laws, invested in public education, improved access to healthcare, improved gun safety, and more. And even just securing the House of Delegates will allow us to put constitutional amendments enshrining reproductive rights and marriage equality and allowing voting rights restoration on the ballot in 2026.

We should be well positioned - MAGA DOGE cuts to the federal workforce could significantly adversely affect the economy of Virginia because of that state’s large number of federal employees and a private sector that heavily depends on the federal government.

Let’s get ready to help turn Virginia blue again!:

We can get on the email list of postcarding efforts including lists of Postcards for Virginia, the Center for Common Ground, and Sister District.
We can sign this interest form with Grassroots Democrats HQ to be notified of future phonebanks
We can consider a donation to Oath’s recommended high impact candidates here

GRATITUDE TO LAWYERS NOT CAVING TO TRUMP

The Trump administration has been targeting law firms with executive orders revoking their security clearances and blocking their attorneys from federal buildings, including federal courthouses—essentially making it impossible for them to do their work. The administration has rescinded orders when a law firm agrees to end its DEI policies and provide tens of millions of dollars in pro bono work for MAGA causes. Some of the nation’s largest, wealthiest, most powerful law firms are caving into these demands. So far, the cowards include Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom; Covington & Burling; Wilkie Farr & Gallagher; and Paul Weiss. The real law firms—those who are fighting the Trump administration in court, and winning—are Perkins Coie, Jenner & Block and WilmerHale. Notably, multiple Skadden Arps associates are resigning from their firm in response to their cave. 30-year-old third-year Rachel Cohen became the first person in “Big Law” to publicly speak out, and her letter to her firm is here. She has now been followed by Brenna Frey, who announced her resignation here. For standing against this attack on the rule of law, let’s send messages of gratitude to:

Rachel Cohen and Brenna Frey. As they no longer work at Skadden Arps, we can indicate our approval on each of their LinkedIn posts here and here — and we can share the posts, if we wish.
Perkins Coie managing partner Roland T. Sarubbi, RSarubbi@perkinscoie.com
Jenner & Block, StandFirm@jenner.com
WilmerHale managing partner Anjan Sahni, anjan.sahni@wilmerhale.com

KEEPING AN EYE ON…

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