Dear Muneer,
In our hyper-connected world, where information – and disinformation – spreads in an instant, it seems inconceivable that more than two years passed between the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation and the day freedom was finally enforced for enslaved people in Texas. Although many in Texas knew of the proclamation, the absence of federal enforcement and the deliberate withholding of information by slaveholders allowed slavery to continue until the arrival of federal troops in June 1865.
This is what information suppression looked like at that time. That delay illustrates how power can be used to suppress information and deny rights.
The rhymes of that history are still painfully with us today. Disinformation now travels at unprecedented speed and scale, and too many of our nation's elected and appointed leaders are complicit in undermining the rule of law. Often, these efforts are cloaked in legal processes that belie their true purpose. Authoritarian governments succeed best when legal institutions can be manipulated to legitimize unlawful or anti-constitutional actions.
We must resist these efforts. You can help by responding to our latest Action Alert.
The United States Postal Service has published a proposed rule that would shift control over mail-in voting from the states to a federal agency under the president’s control and would condition ballot access on state compliance with federally imposed requirements.
LDAD’s Action Alert and accompanying Briefing Materials provide detailed information about why this effort is an impermissible interference with the states’ constitutionally mandated role of administering elections and lacks lawful constitutional or statutory authority.
Simply put, if the United States Postal Service implements this proposed rule, it risks disenfranchising millions of registered voters and will wreak havoc on the system of mail-in voting.
Please submit a comment before the deadline of midnight on July 2, 2026, and speak out publicly in opposition to this proposed rule and the risks it poses to our democracy. Our Action Alert and Briefing Materials provide all the information you need to do this easily. After submitting your comment, please let us know via this form.
Thank you,
Lawyers Defending American Democracy
LDAD continues to work every day of the week to protect democracy, the rule of law, and the Constitution. Please help us protect the rule of law and the freedoms we hold dear by volunteering for our Meeting the Moment initiative and donating to our work.
