Lawfare hasn’t stopped since Donald Trump became president again but has been repackaged into civil litigation to stop his second term agenda—and most of the civil lawfare can be traced to groups affiliated with a coalition known as Civil Service Strong.
Members of the coalition scored federal court wins in recent days to temporarily block Trump’s executive order on birthright citizenship, delay a federal employee buyout, and halt the shuttering of the U.S. Agency for International Development.
The member groups have also been involved in numerous other lawsuits against the Trump administration, including challenging the Schedule F executive order on civil service protections; a suit to block the White House’s Department of Government Efficiency initiative from accessing information; and a lawsuit to prevent disclosure of FBI information.
“The Left is very good at collaborating. Since the election happened, these organizations have been planning which policies to sue over,” Parker Thayer, an investigative researcher with the Capital Research Center, a think tank that monitors nonprofits, told The Daily Signal. “They have been in the lab for a while trying to prepare.”
Civil Service Strong is a project of Democracy Forward, where leading Democrat lawyer Marc Elias is chairman of the board. Elias has been known primarily for election-related litigation and for his role in initiating the discredited Russia collusion investigation during President Donald Trump’s first term.
Democracy Forward, in a post on X, boasted of filing nine lawsuits against the Trump administration and winning four court orders.
The groups joining Democracy Forward in Civil Service Strong are two federal unions (the American Federation of Government Employees and the National Federation of Federal Employees); two nonfederal unions (the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees and the American Federation of Teachers); three political lawfare groups (Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, which sued to block Trump from being on the 2024 ballot; the State Democracy Defenders Fund; and Protect Democracy), and two whistleblower-protection groups (the Government Accountability Project and the Project on Government Oversight).
The managing director of Civil Service Strong is Rob Shriver, appointed as acting director of the Office of Personnel Management under then-President Joe Biden.
The Daily Signal reached out to each of these organizations for this article, but none responded as of publication time.
The Civil Service Strong website identifies “some of the organizations,” and lists 10 groups, which suggests other unidentified organizations or individuals are part of the coalition.
“I don’t expect the Left’s litigation machine to slow down at all,” the Capital Research Center’s Thayer said. “In Trump’s second term, they are taking him more serious. It’s less about show impeachments and media hoaxes, and more about stopping him in court.”
On Wednesday, in a federal district court in Maryland, Democracy Forward is arguing on behalf of clients suing to prevent Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents from entering houses of worship in pursuit of illegal aliens being harbored there.
On Monday, a federal district court in Massachusetts sided with the AFGE and AFSCME, both listed as coalition members, as well as the National Association of Government Employees, to pause the Trump administration’s buyout offer to federal employees. Democracy Forward represented the unions in the lawsuit.
Under the proposed buyout, the Office of Personnel Management offered to pay federal employees through Sept. 30 and provide them with full benefits if they agreed to take the buyout by Feb. 6. A judge already delayed the deadline until Monday, making the second interim ruling until making a determination on the legality of the buyout offer.
Separately, Democracy Forward and the Public Citizen Litigation Group represented the AFGE and the American Foreign Service Association in a ruling Friday to temporarily halt closing USAID.
Federal unions are funded through employees’ mandatory dues.
Lawfare nonprofit groups are funded through private donors. Among the biggest contributors to Democracy Forward was the Sandler Foundation, which provided $2.5 million, according to the most recently available financial information.
The Sandler Foundation has been a longtime donor to organizations such as the liberal Center for American Progress, the American Civil Liberties Union, and ProPublica. The Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation gave $2.14 million to Democracy Forward in 2023. It was established in 1964 by investor Warren Buffett and named after his late first wife.
On Monday, Democracy Forward filed a lawsuit in a federal district court in Virginia to stop DOGE from accessing government data. A similar lawsuit was filed by another group in the Civil Service Strong coalition, Protect Democracy, which made a complaint the same day in federal court in Maryland against DOGE.
In a separate lawsuit, Protect Democracy sued on behalf of the Government Accountability Project—also part of the Civil Service Strong coalition—as well as the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association to stop Trump’s executive order to recategorize thousands of career employees to be political employees, which would mean no more civil service protections.
Protect Democracy was founded in 2017 by Ian Bassin, a former associate White House counsel in the Obama administration.
In 2023, one of the biggest donors was the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, a left-of-center grant maker, which contributed $3 million to Protect Democracy. The Silicon Valley Community Foundation has donated to other liberal organizations, such as the Southern Poverty Law Center, the American Civil Liberties Union, and the Brennan Center for Justice.
Another coalition member, the State Democracy Defenders Fund, scored its own win Monday, teaming with other organizations in a lawsuit in a New Hampshire federal court to block Trump’s executive order revoking birthright citizenship for the children of illegal immigrants born in the U.S.
On Friday, a federal judge in the District of Columbia sided with States Defending Democracy Fund to block the Justice Department from releasing the names of FBI personnel involved in the investigation of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol protest.
On Feb. 3, the State Democracy Defenders Fund joined the Public Citizen Litigation Group to represent the AFGE, the Alliance for Retired Americans, and the Service Employees International Union in a lawsuit to prevent the Department of the Treasury from sharing confidential data with DOGE staff investigating government waste.
The State Democracy Defenders Fund was founded in 2024 by former Obama White House ethics czar Norm Eisen, who former President Barack Obama later named as U.S. ambassador to the Czech Republic. An author of at least three anti-Trump books, Eisen was also a former special counsel in 2019 to the House Judiciary Committee for the first impeachment of Trump.
In a recent MSNBC interview, Eisen called Trump an “autocrat” and asserted “the lawsuits we’re bringing, I’m planning 100 this year.”
Eisen was also a founding member in the early 2000s of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or CREW, which is also a member of the coalition.
For its part, CREW—part of multiple lawsuits against the first Trump administration—is representing the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, or PEER, in a lawsuit challenging the Trump executive order on “Schedule F,” which recategorized thousands of federal employees from civil service to political appointees. That’s applicable to employees who have a role in implementing policy.
Fred Lucas is chief news correspondent and manager of the Investigative Reporting Project for The Daily Signal. He is the author of “The Myth of Voter Suppression: The Left’s Assault on Clean Elections.” Send an email to Fred.
Reprinted with Permission from The Daily Signal – By Fred Lucas
The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of AMAC or AMAC Action.
These lawsuits are not against President Trump. They are against the American citizens who voted overwhelmingly for him to put these policies into action. Every one of his policies so far is meant to clean up the corrupt federal government that has run rampant like a cancer for decades. It really is a battle of good against evil. May God bless this man in his determination to fix this once great country.
Good article outlining the only avenue the far left has open to them at the present time. Marxism may retreat, but they will never surrender or change their ways. It is up to the American people to purge this threat completely, if they truly want their country back for the long-term.
I HATE Activists Judges. They are as useless as a stubbed toe. WE THE PEOPLE should be able to fire them at will.
I’m sick of these liberals going judge shopping for judges who will make rulings to halt President Trump’s MAGA agenda. Imagine the crybaby tantrum liberals would have if DJT were to ignore these America-last judges and press on with his agenda like Joebama ignored SCOTUS with his ludicrous student loan forgiveness. Quite frankly, I hope to see DJT tell these woke judges where they can stick their rulings.
We need God’s intervention more than ever, the devil never takes a vacation.
Congress has Constitutional authority to regulate judges. They should do away with the scenario where one federal judge can shut down something involving the whole country. A federal judge should ONLY be able to stop something in his/her district! DIMMs “forum shop” and put all their cases before the same set of judges who were appointed by Obama or Slow Joe!
75M Americans voted for Harris and the Progressive Leftist Communist Democrats. We won the President election battle, but the war continues. FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!
When you look at the names of these groups initiating this lawfare and listen to what they say, the unelected 4th branch has truly evolved into an Orwellian nightmare. By shirking their responsibilities our elected representatives and senators, regardless of party, are to blame for foisting this nightmare on us.
See this is the Swamp in action. These democrats create these left loon foundations in Washington and never leave. These people and organizations are obstructionist’s to any Republican President to slow their agenda down by judge shopping and lawsuits. This is the problem these people have all worked for Biden and Obozo and never leave the swamp and wait to get back in power to damage the country and was our Tax dollars on stupid programs. These people need to be defeated in any way possible and taken out of DC.
Just about the Time I think the demonrats have reached the lowest point of humanity, they come up with something else that is anti American.
I hope that real Americans are seeing and taking in all that these low life scumbags are doing just because they hate a man for loving his country. Do they even bother to see what President Trump has accomplished in the three weeks of being president?
If I had any control, I would see to it that not one demonrat was ever elected again. They have shown me their contempt of America and the Constitution has robbed them of their common sense and now they have become rabid rats attacking everything that President Trump is trying to do to bring back the country of my childhood. Patriotism, ethics, respect, kindness and love for your neighbor no matter what color or ethnicity they are.
I don’t know about anyone else but I am damn sick of them and their hatred.
The CORRUPT Left (and the EQUALLY CORRUPT FAKE NEWS medias) are the most evil, sadistic, damning, America-despising, sexual deviate lowlifes, and lovers of crime, fraud, waste and abuse in human history. And those are their better attributes.
Another list of “benefactors” DOGE should research; there’s likely some heavy “dark” money involved, kickbacks from the “waste programs” DOGE has already revealed and more. Seems few Conservatives are “panicking” or worried about this auditing of expenditures, guess that’s just an indicator of those who know they’ve done wrong and are likely to be exposed. Thanks Trump, Elon, DOGE and anyone else that is helping these patriot citizen first responders reviving our country from disease and pestilence.
They should investigate these groups and make sure they’re not also being funded by USAID or FEMA. Expose all of them and the rogue judges.
The problem is not only the leftist groups attacking Trump, the real problem is the leftist judges trying to take over our nation by imposing their leftist ideology on the will of the people. America is doomed if we don’t stop this attack from within.
All the lawsuits to stop the truth from coming out. All those activists and their groups fighting for the “cause” petrified of what DOGE might discover. If there is nothing wrong, why the terror of books being opened and examined? Is there something hidden, that public should not know? Why? Public pays ,it is it’s money, not the activists, I am sure not one had given a penny to the cause they are fighting for, all they care for is their own survival and necks .People voted for the truth to come out, lets find out how taxpayer’s money had been spent.
The bottom line is that, if any of these agencies don’t have anything to hide, they should welcome an assessment of their expenditures. They should be proud to have their organizations examined and then receive clean bills of health.
The Democraps AKA Commucrats are in a panic because they are being exposed as the criminal thieves that they are. They have been squandering tax payer $ on evil programs and all the while enriching themselves. At this point all they can do is try to obstruct the DOGE Audits for as long as possible. The American people or at least 76 millions + of them now know what’s been going on and the cat is out of the bag. A fitting end to most of the Comucrats would be to be put on trial for treason and if found guilty receive the traditional punishment for the high crime of treason.
These groups are only confirming what we already know. The radical left does NOT want our country to be economically sound or be a Democratic Republic. All they want is to stop President Trump from returning us to the great country that we were just a generation ago. They want a citizenry fully dependent on the government so they can have all the power and money they can amass. I simply hope that most people in the U.S. want to keep their freedom to live a fulfilling life with freedoms our Constitution guaranteed us…to earn a living, to practice our chosen religion and to raise our kids to demand the same. People who cannot or will not see the evil in what the radical left is trying to do are either too stupid to see or or are evil themselves.
To start with, Marc Elias is the scum of the earth and someone with a good legal mind and some financial backing needs to figure out how to tie him up in legal battles for the rest of his life (or lock him up). Secondly, the House and Senate need to get off their lazy butts and start codifying into law the EO’s so that they can’t be easy reversed and aren’t subject to some of the challenges that EO’s are. Midterm elections are coming, and there is sufficient fraud to assume that the Republicans could lose the House or the Senate. Third, the Supreme Court needs to take up some landmark cases up quickly to eliminate the frivolous and ridiculous suits being brought purely for the purpose of overcoming the will of the American people as expressed in our elections and self interest of a corrupt cabal. Establish some decisions that eliminate or at least significant reduce this lawfare. Otherwise, our country will wind up in a highly divided (even more so than currently) and potentially violent state. You can see it building in the assassination attempts, violent crime, and uncivilized calls for riots in the streets on the part of the unhinged left.
I expected this because it is the same tactic used by the communist democrats during Pres Trump’s first administration. In the end, Pres Trump will win in the SC because he is 100% RIGHT. How could the SC rule against American Citizens knowing the truth of where their tax dollars are going? They can’t, without committing treason.
Time to take these Democrats and judges that were appointed by a illegal Kenyan born person, and a President, who crapped in his pants, and start removing them from office, and showing them that we are not going to take their crap anymore. We the American people voted to put President Trump back in the White House after 4 years of a President who couldn’t walk and talk at the same time. We all know that Obama was the one really doing all the crap.
“Civil Service Strong” seems morally weak, given that their main goal appears to be focused on serving their own ideals while damaging our democratic republic, as well as our economy.
This introduction seems to give the impression that they’d censor our books, films, thoughts, hobbies and sock drawers if permitted. Thankfully, someone else’s self-importance and associated malfunctions do not equal a mandate.
Democrats are spending money, some of it likely taxpayer money, to fight what 60-70 percent of the electorate voted for. This forces the government to spend tax dollars fighting it in court. Lawyers win, we lose. It took four years for Biden and the democrats to destroy our economy. Schumer is complaining Trump hasn’t fixed it in four weeks. There are people, who vote, stupid enough to believe that. Hopefully there are more people who see it for what it is ludicrous.
I knew it wasn’t going to be easy and I President Trump knows how to handle problem
Here’s a copy of a text I received last week. Perhaps it was by accident. I guess they thought I was on their side or in their camp or something weird.
Obama – “We have to mobilize. FORCEFULLY!”
So we are fighting to FLIP the House Majority, TODAY >> winblue-text.com/fH9BvF
Win Blue USA
Stop to End
The text does show how aggressive and intense the Left are. I say if the Left doesn’t repent they are going to be “Left behind”!
Their shame and embarrassment is powerful. They cannot deal with what exposure will do to them.
Didn’t Biden publicly ignore/defy Supreme Court rulings? I seem to remember that regarding forgiving student loans. And perhaps other issues.
those would the groups i’d sic musk and hie group on, hard and heavy, if i were trump
The Leftist Communist (Democrat) Party has turned the judicial system into a source of evil to use it as a weapon against what is best for the country, and against Conservatives and Christians. The judicial system can no longer be trusted to administer justice and uphold our US Constitution and our Declaration of Independence . Perhaps, we as Conservatives and Christians should write a second Declaration of Independence for our time and present it in Congress to the entire Leftist Communist Community better known as Democrats declaring our independence from their evil agenda.
All parties should go back and review the 1946 Federal Law: ADMINISTRATIVE PROCEDURE ACT and quit trying to change history to fit their own agendas.
They couldn’t exploit the law to keep him off state ballots. When that didn’t work they tried to indict him. They even tried to shoot him. Twice. Back to lawfare… resist, resist, resist. “Whose side are you on?” I’m on the right side!
Well then it appears that Marc Elias needs to be questioned for being a domestic Terrorist plotting against a US President!
Marc Elias’ role in the Russia Collusion Hoax needs to be used against him. It looks to me like all the instigators of the Lawfare against Trump are involved in some shady business. They need to be investigated and if found guilty of any legal wrong doing (a most likely scenario!) charged immediately. Their defiance of the will of the people needs to be crushed!
In the end, President Trump will prevail. These libtard leftists can only slow the Trump tsunami, not stop it. At the end of the day when these lawfare idiots look back at their sleazy efforts, all they will see is that they have only been pi$$ing into a strong hurricane force wind! Even then, most of them will never understand that they are actually part of the problem, not part of the solution. Culpable stupidity knows no bounds and these folks wallow in it. MAGA
And traitorous criminal (nearly all Democrat, of course) governors, mayors, politicians, bureaucrats, judges, and attorneys.
imo
They will not stop until they have destroyed this country. The Democrat Party and these groups need to be classified as domestic terrorist organizations and charged with insurrection and treason. We need a class action lawsuit filed against the people in this group. Bankrupt them. They are against everything that a majority of the voters in this country voted for. The voters have standing, class action lawsuit take them down
It’s time to start draining the swamp., anyway possible.Apparantely these judges as well as Senators and Congress all have lined pockets There are bad apples in all.Time to clean it out
Why do these people hate this country so much?
These people should remember how the election went.There are more of us than them.The Trump administration is getting rid of the stagnant entities that more than likely are not doing their job,or there are many doing jobs that could be done by a few.The democrats government is like STAR WARS”JABBA THE HUT”,over stuffed and glutenous,it’s time for a diet.
Not unexpected. The left has been blind sided across the board and they just, as the line in “A Few Good Men” says, “they can’t handle the truth.” It may be by numbers alone the left could hurt the process, but I doubt any of these tactics will succeed for long. My guess is they will keep this up until enough of these cases get squashed that they will come to the understanding it is a waste of time and effort. But don’t presume they will lighten up any time soon. They have an axe to grind. They may get down to the nub before it’s all over.
Trump is talking to both Vallensky & Putin about peace & stopping the war in Ukraine. Then yesterday, Hegsbeth came out & said Ukraine will not get back all of the territory they lost during this war & that NATO is off the table to Ukraine. Why not tell Russia & Ukraine what the deal is & they do not count. My opinion, NATO is still very important to peace & strength in Europe & we need them to stay intact. It was wrong for Trump to say this last year, IF COUNTRIES DO NOT PAY THEIR FAIR SHARE INTO NATO, THEN RUSSIA CAN DO WHATEVER THE HELL THEY WANT TO THEM. This situation is similar to GAZA today, as Russia does not want Ukraine in NATO as that means they cannot attack Ukraine again because NATO will come to their aid if a member. Sweden & Finland do not want to be attacked by Russia & so they became members of NATO for just that reason.
Trump should start working with Congress to pass bills , instead of using Executive Orders and TruthSocial media. Quit the end runs around the Legislative branch, one of your mandates was to unite America again!
Our Founding Fathers formed 3 branches of government. The Executive & Legislative branches are equal & the Judicial Branch is to step in and rule when the other two branches do not agree. J D Vance is totally wrong in believing that the Judicial Branch cannot rule over POTUS. Both Trump and Vance took oath to protect our Constitution, so start doing it & quit wasting time and money .