March, 27 2020, 12:00am EDT
Stand Up America: $400 Million Not Nearly Enough To Protect Elections As Coronavirus Crisis Accelerates
Congress Must Provide More Funding In Next Coronavirus Response Package
WASHINGTON
After both chambers of Congress passed a stimulus bill that includes $400 million in funding for states to implement vote-by-mail and other voting reforms, Stand Up America Founder and President Sean Eldridge released the following statement:
"No voter should have to choose between protecting their health and exercising their right to vote. Period. While we are grateful to Democratic lawmakers and activists who forced Republicans to increase the amount of election assistance included in this bill, the $400 million allocated in it is simply not enough to meaningfully ensure the integrity of our elections.
"The next COVID-19 response package must include sufficient funding for states to implement vote-by-mail, guarantee no-excuse absentee voting, expand online and same-day registration, and increase opportunities to vote early.
"That's why Stand Up America will continue driving grassroots actions until lawmakers allocate adequate funding that will allow states to guarantee that every eligible voter can safely cast their ballot this fall."
Earlier this month, Stand Up America launched a national campaign demanding that lawmakers provide at least $2 billion in funding to ensure that Americans can safely vote. Community members made more than 70,000 constituent calls to Congress urging lawmakers to provide the funding to implement vote-by-mail and expand no-excuse absentee voting, online voter registration, and early voting.
The Brennan Center for Justice has estimated that $2 billion is required to ensure that every eligible voter can cast their ballot this fall.
Stand Up America is a progressive advocacy organization with over two million community members across the country. Focused on grassroots advocacy to strengthen our democracy and oppose Trump's corrupt agenda, Stand Up America has driven over 600,000 phone calls to Congress and mobilized tens of thousands of protestors across the country.
LATEST NEWS
‘Incompetence Everywhere’: Fury as US Embassy Says Americans Stuck in Israel Are On Their Own
"The strike itself is illegal and disastrous but their lack of readiness for what comes next is unforgivable as well," said Sen. Chris Murphy.
Mar 03, 2026
The US Embassy in Jerusalem sparked outrage on Tuesday when it said it was unable to help Americans stuck in Israel leave the country amid an escalating regional conflict with Iran.
In a message posted on social media, the embassy said it "is not in a position at this time to evacuate or directly assist Americans in departing Israel," and recommended seeking help from Israeli tourism officials.
"The Israeli Ministry of Tourism has begun operating shuttles to the Taba Border Crossing as of March 2," the embassy stated. "To be added to the passenger list for a shuttle, you must register via the Ministry’s evacuation form. The US Embassy cannot make any recommendation (for or against) the Ministry of Tourism's shuttle. If you choose to avail yourself of this option to depart, the US government cannot guarantee your safety."
The embassy's message came three days after the US and Israel launched an unprovoked attack on Iran, which has retaliated by launching drone strikes on US allies throughout the Middle East.
Many critics slammed the US embassy for being so unprepared to help its own citizens despite having advance knowledge that a large-scale attack on Iran was a real possibility.
"Mike Huckabee’s embassy is always ready to defend Israel," wrote Zeteo News editor-in-chief Mehdi Hasan, "but not to help American citizens, it seems."
US Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said that the Jerusalem embassy's helplessness in the face of an emergency was evidence of "incompetence everywhere."
"So the State Department is forcing everyone to immediately leave the region but is also refusing to help people leave the region," he wrote. "The strike itself is illegal and disastrous but their lack of readiness for what comes next is unforgivable as well."
Murphy's criticism was echoed by former US Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), a one-time ally of President Donald Trump who in recent months has become a staunch critic of the president's decisions.
"American tax payers are forced to give Israel $3.8 BILLION every single year," she wrote, "and here is our own US Embassy in Jerusalem telling Americans good luck getting out, you are on your own. The betrayal is unbelievable."
Tommy Vietor, former National Security Council staffer under President Barack Obama, expressed outrage at the Trump White House for leaving Americans out to dry.
"All those years demagoguing Benghazi and pretending to give a shit about Americans overseas," wrote Vietor, "and now the White House starts a reckless war with Iran and tells everyone trying to escape the chaos that you're on your own."
Sam Stein, a reporter at The Bulwark, observed that the US Department of State only put out an alert encouraging Americans to leave Israel and 13 other countries in the region on Monday, two days after the strikes against Iran began.
"This morning, the Embassy in Jerusalem says it can't help with that," Stein marveled.
Anti-gun violence activist Fred Guttenberg unleashed an angry tirade at the Trump administration upon seeing the US embassy's message.
"THEY HAD NO FUCKING PLAN!!!" he wrote. "Americans are at risk now because they had no FUCKING plan."
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Hegseth Calling Rules of Engagement ‘Stupid,’ Critics Warn, Opens Door to War Crimes in Iran
"We are a rogue murder state now, and positively proud of it," said one historian.
Mar 03, 2026
US Pentagon Secretary Pete Hegseth's dismissal on Monday of what he called "stupid rules of engagement" in the illegal war against Iran amounted to an invitation for American and allied forces to commit war crimes, human rights organizations and other critics warned.
Hegseth's remarks came during a press conference alongside the top US general, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Dan Caine. The Pentagon chief boasted that the US is "unleashing the most lethal and precise air power campaign in history," "all on our terms with maximum authorities," unbound by "stupid rules of engagement," and undeterred by "what so-called international institutions say"—an apparent reference to the United Nations.
Hegseth, an accused war criminal who successfully lobbied President Donald Trump to pardon alleged or convicted war criminals during his first White House term, also praised Israel for its willingness to dispense with rules of engagement, "unlike so many of our traditional allies who wring their hands and clutch their pearls, hemming and hawing about the use of force."
Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a statement Monday that "these remarks are concerning in light of Hegseth’s actions in the past year that have weakened US military posts and mechanisms intended to ensure compliance with international humanitarian law, also known as the laws of war."
"Rules of engagement are official military directives that tell military forces when, where, how, and against whom force may be used. They must always be in accordance with the laws of war," said HRW. "Hegseth abolished 'civilian environment teams' and other mechanisms intended to limit harm to civilians during operations. The 2026 National Defense Strategy omitted references to civilian protection and the Defense Department rolled back restrictions on its use of antipersonnel landmines and moved ahead with cluster munitions procurement despite these weapons' foreseeable immediate and long-term harm to civilians."
"Human Rights Watch will endeavor to assess whether these Defense Department actions unlawfully increase the risk of harm to civilians during US military operations," the group added. "US civilian and military officials should reaffirm US compliance with the laws of war and restore the personnel and oversight structures that help protect civilians during armed conflict."
Historian Seth Cotlar wrote on social media that Hegseth's comments underscored that "we are a rogue murder state now, and positively proud of it."
The Pentagon chief's remarks came days after a girls' school in Iran was bombed, allegedly by US or Israeli forces. The US Central Command said it was "looking into" the attack, which killed 165 people—most of them girls between the ages of 7 and 12. The Guardian notes that the school was "adjacent to a cluster of buildings that form the local Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) barracks and support buildings."
An Al Jazeera investigation concluded the school strike was likely "deliberate."
When Hegseth says "no stupid rules of engagement," this is what he means.
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— Scott Horton (@robertscotthorton.bsky.social) Mar 2, 2026 at 11:40 PM
The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor said in a statement over the weekend that "any deliberate attack on a school or on civilians, as well as any indiscriminate or disproportionate attack that violates the principles of distinction and proportionality, constitutes a grave breach and may amount to a war crime where intent to target the school is established or where the attack is indiscriminate or disproportionate."
Hegseth has previously derided limitations on US troops' conduct overseas as "stupid." During remarks to hundreds of generals last year, the Pentagon chief declared that we "untie the hands of our warfighters to intimidate, demoralize, hunt, and kill the enemies of our country."
"We unleash overwhelming and punishing violence on the enemy," Hegseth said at the time. "No more politically correct and overbearing rules of engagement."
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'No Safety in Appeasement': Law Firms That Fought Trump Vindicated as DOJ Drops Cases
"Another significant victory for the rule of law over Trump's reign of lawlessness," said Rep. Jamie Raskin.
Mar 03, 2026
Congressman Jamie Raskin said the US Department of Justice's decision Monday to abandon its legal cases against law firms that refused to capitulate to President Donald Trump should serve as "a reminder that those who fight back against authoritarianism are winning."
The DOJ asked the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to dismiss its cases against law firms including Perkins Coie, WilmerHale, Susman Godfrey, and Jenner & Block, which won legal challenges they filed last year after Trump issued executive orders saying they should lose government contracts and their employees should be blocked from government buildings.
Those executive orders were signed because the firms represented and employed high-profile Democrats and other opponents of Trump.
Other law firms, including Skadden Arps and Paul Weiss, angered lawyers within their ranks and the larger legal community when they signed deals with Trump; the latter firm agreed to end its internal diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives and provide $40 million in free legal work for the president and causes he supports.
The Trump administration's decision on Monday proved, said Raskin (D-Md.), that "there’s no safety in appeasement.”
“When the Trump administration tried to bully and silence law firms by banning them from federal buildings, courthouses and contracts, a handful—like Susman Godfrey, Perkins Coie, Jenner & Block, and WilmerHale—fought back," said Raskin. "Today, those firms forced Trump to back down and abandon his blatantly unconstitutional effort to punish lawyers, clients, and causes because Trump disagrees with their speech. Meanwhile, the firms that chose to roll over saddled their associates and partners with doing billions of dollars-worth of free legal work for Trump, his twisted administration and his MAGA allies."
While other firms caved to Trump's demands last year, the companies that didn't quickly won legal victories, with one federal judge saying the executive order targeting Jenner & Block was “doubly violative of the Constitution" because it targeted the clients it represents as well as a lawyer it once employed—Andrew Weissman, who was part of former special counsel Robert Mueller's team that investigated Trump.
“This order, like the others, seeks to chill legal representation the administration doesn’t like, thereby insulating the executive branch from the judicial check fundamental to the separation of powers," US District Judge John Bates wrote last May. "It thus violates the Constitution and the court will enjoin its operation in full.”
"This episode will be remembered as demonstrating the difference between institutions that had the ethical courage to uphold the Constitution and fight bullying and then won, and those that compromised their ethics and gained nothing."
Jenner & Block said Monday that "the government’s decision to withdraw its appeals makes permanent the rulings of four federal judges that the executive orders targeting law firms, including Jenner & Block, were unconstitutional."
"Our partnership is proud to have stood firm on behalf of its clients, and we look forward to continuing to serve them—guided by these bedrock values—for many decades to come," said the firm.
Brian Hauss, deputy director of the Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project at the ACLU, said the DOJ had finally admitted "what everyone knew on Day 1: There is no way to defend these unconstitutional executive orders."
“This shameful assault on the rule of law has failed, thanks to the brave lawyers who refused to compromise their integrity," said Hauss.
Vanita Gupta, former associate attorney general under the Biden administration, told NBC News that the law groups that struck deals with the White House had "undermined the rule of law and the legal profession in this country."
"This episode will be remembered as demonstrating the difference between institutions that had the ethical courage to uphold the Constitution and fight bullying and then won, and those that compromised their ethics and gained nothing," Gupta said. "Let’s hope that media companies, universities, and other organizations pay heed."
In addition to his attacks on law firms, the president has threatened universities with funding cuts and federal investigations into what the White House views as antisemitism and extremism on campus and the colleges' efforts to promote diversity and inclusion.
At least six universities have struck deals with Trump. The University of Pennsylvania agreed to ban transgender student athletes from participating on women's sports teams and Columbia University agreed to further crack down on campus protests like those that erupted in 2024 against US support for Israel's assault on Gaza—protests that both the Biden and Trump administrations claimed were antisemitic.
Harvard sued the administration over its decision to freeze $2.2 billion in research funding and was granted a restraining order last year to protect international students whom the White House had threatened with visa restrictions.
On Monday, Raskin said the DOJ's decision to back down from the attacks on law firms was "another significant victory for the rule of law over Trump's reign of lawlessness."
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