I have a couple of exciting updates about Iowa Citizen Action Network that I wanted to share with you!
During the past year ICAN, along with several other organizations, has formed the Iowa Fair Courts Coalition. We are becoming more and more concerned about the crisis in the federal courts, so we have engaged organizations, businesses, individuals and policy makers who believe that access to fair and impartial courts is a crucial component of a healthy democracy.
Because of our work on this, I have been invited to the White House on Wednesday to attend and speak at a summit with other state advocates who have been working on the Why Courts Matter issue. We are told that many high level officials from the administration will be in attendance. I’m very excited to have this opportunity and will report back on what we learn.
We are doing this work because we realize the importance of the federal courts in everyday citizen’s lives. We are not receiving additional funding for this project and are relying on donations from our friends and members. You can help fund this project by going to: Donation for Iowa Fair Courts Coalition and making a secure, online contribution.
We are also putting together a webinar for June 12th with White House Counsel Chris Kang who will be joined by Eric Lesh of Lambda Legal. This will be an interesting and informative event and will underscore the importance of filling vacant seats in the Federal Courts. If you are interested in joining in on the webinar, send me an email at sdinsdale@iowacan.org and I will send you more information!
All of this is of particular interest here in Iowa with Senator Grassley serving as the ranking member on the Senate Judiciary Committee.
We know that recent cases demonstrate that no matter the issue – voting rights, immigration, marriage equality, employment discrimination, health care, consumer protections, privacy– the judiciary will continue to play an increasingly important role in the lives of hardworking Americans.
As I have relayed, all of the work we are doing on the Iowa Fair Courts Coalition is basically unfunded. We are doing it because it is so very important to all Iowans. Justice delayed is certainly justice denied.
Thanks!
–Sue Dinsdale
To contribute, click on: Donation for Iowa Fair Courts Coalition
To make a tax-deductible contribution, you can click on: Iowa Fair Courts Tax Deductible Donation