newsletter 10/09/20

ICAP Works Toward a Peaceful 2020 Election

Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection
GEORGETOWN LAW

At ICAP, we continue to meet the challenges to the rule of law that 2020 keeps posing.  As early voting starts in some states and Election Day approaches, we at ICAP have prepared fact sheets for all 50 states providing key information about unlawful militias, state laws prohibiting private militias and paramilitary activity, and what to do if citizens see groups of armed individuals near polling places.  The fact sheets are designed to inform state and local officials, including election officials and law enforcement, as well as voters themselves, about the laws that prohibit armed groups of individuals from organizing as paramilitary units and from purporting to engage in military or law enforcement functions.  We at ICAP also have prepared a fact sheet on voter intimidation laws, explaining what kinds of conduct could constitute voter intimidation and what to do if a person experiences voter intimidation.

To date, the voter intimidation and militia fact sheets have garnered almost half a million views from all across the country.  State and local authorities are enlisting ICAP’s help as they step up to address these threats to voting rights— on Wednesday, for example, ICAP Legal Director Mary McCord appeared alongside the Philadelphia District Attorney as his office announced a task force to protect voters from intimidation.  And yesterday in the New York Times — in the wake of news of a failed plot to kidnap Gretchen Whitmer and the increasing activity of private militias nationwide — Mary highlighted the history and precedent that render such activity unconstitutional, as well as state and local laws that prohibit such activity.

We’re also advancing our cases in courts across the country, continuing our challenge of a new State Department rule requiring nearly all applicants for the Diversity Visa Program to have a valid passport; filing an amicus brief signed by 68 current and former law enforcement officials challenging Texas’s improper use of solitary confinement; and moving to unseal, on behalf of the Prince George’s County Office of the Public Defender, an expert report documenting numerous incidents of misconduct committed by the Prince George’s County Police Department.

Keep up with ICAP on Twitter via @GeorgetownICAP; and suggest what we should take on next via reachICAP@georgetown.edu.With thanks for your continued support, The ICAP Team