Demand Justice

Demand Justice Logo

Demand Justice is a group formed to push court packing, or expanding the Supreme Court in order to appoint anti-constitutional justices. Demand Justice receives funding from Hillary Clinton's Onward Together and the Sixteen Thirty Fund.

Demand Justice was co-founded by Christopher Kang and Brian Fallon.

About Us

Brian Fallon

From the Demand Justice website:

Brian Fallon is Cofounder and Executive Director of Demand Justice.

Fallon worked as the Director of Public Affairs for the U.S. Department of Justice during the Obama administration. Prior to that, he was a top aide in the United States Senate, working for New York Democrat Chuck Schumer.

In 2016, Fallon served as the National Press Secretary for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. He appears frequently on MSNBC and CNN to discuss national politics from a progressive perspective.

Fallon is a 2003 graduate of Harvard College. He lives in Arlington, VA, with his wife and three children.

Christopher Kang

From the Demand Justice website:

Christopher Kang is the Cofounder and Chief Counsel of Demand Justice. He served in the White House for nearly seven years, as Deputy Counsel to President Obama and Special Assistant to the President for Legislative Affairs. Chris oversaw the selection, vetting, and confirmation of more than 220 of the president’s judicial nominees—who set records for the most people of color, women, and openly gay and lesbian judges appointed by a president. He also was in charge of advising President Obama on commutations and pardons from 2014 to 2015 and helped spearhead the confirmations of Supreme Court Justices Sotomayor and Kagan, the repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell, and passage of the Fair Sentencing Act.

Chris also has served as National Director of the National Council of Asian Pacific Americans and worked for Senate Democratic Whip Richard Durbin as Director of Floor Operations and Judiciary Committee Counsel. In 2011, the National Law Journal named him one of the top 40 minority lawyers in the nation under the age of 40. Chris serves on the Board of Advisors of the American Constitution Society and the People's Parity Project.

Tamara Brummer

From the Demand Justice website:

Tamara Brummer is an organizer and strategist with years of experience building meaningful and impactful relationships rooted in a shared vision of real economic justice. At Demand Justice she is the Senior Advisor and Director of National Outreach and Engagement focused on broadening outreach and deepening relationships across organizations and movements.

Prior to Demand Justice, Tamara has worked across the labor movement building and growing membership and power for working people across the country. At the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades she led strategic campaigns as well as advised leadership on issues of race and gender.

At the AFL-CIO, she led community engagement across the Northeast region building coalitions across labor and community to organize for real change in our cities for working people. Her career in the labor movement began at the Service Employees International Union organizing and training college students to stand in solidarity with workers on their campus fighting for respect and dignity.

Jen Dansereau

From the Demand Justice website:

Jen Dansereau spent 12 years as the Vice President of Member Services at the National Turkey Federation. Prior to that, she managed the direct mail program at EMILY’s List, and worked on the staffs of the Democratic National Convention in both 2000 and 2004.

Netroots Nation 2021

Demand Justice sponsored a panel discussion titled "Expanding The Supreme Court To Protect Abortion Rights" at Netroots Nation 2021.

EXPANDING THE SUPREME COURT TO PROTECT ABORTION RIGHTS

Featured Keynote Panel; Fri, 10/08/2021 - 11:30am (Eastern)

The Supreme Court has failed to block a flagrantly unconstitutional Texas law that bans abortion after six weeks of pregnancy, effectively overturning Roe v. Wade in the state. Later this fall, the Court will consider a case from Mississippi that could further erode the constitutional right to abortion, or end it nationwide altogether. The burdens of these decisions will fall most heavily on people of color, low income people, and other vulnerable populations. The Court’s recent actions make clear that this Supreme Court poses an imminent threat to our right to make decisions about our bodies, our lives, and our futures. In order to protect our fundamental rights, and to make progress toward a more equitable future, we must first address the conservative supermajority on the Supreme Court, which was illegitimately installed by Republican politicians through a win-at-all costs campaign. Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (MA-07) will kick off this program. Then, reproductive rights and justice experts will be joined by court reform advocates to discuss the need to add seats to the Supreme Court, with the goal of safeguarding the right to an abortion, restoring the Court’s legitimacy, and bringing balance back to the institution.

This session is sponsored by Demand Justice.

Led by: Tamara Brummer

Panelists: Renee Bracey Sherman, Katie O'Connor, Rep. Ayanna Pressley, Kelsey Ryland, Sonja Spoo

Pack the Courts

From a 2019 Politico article titled "Progressive activists push 2020 Dems to pack Supreme Court:"

Pack the Courts has raised more than $500,000 to jump-start its effort and has partnered with Demand Justice, a progressive group founded in 2018 that is trying to match Republicans' organizing efforts around the judiciary.

"At Demand Justice, we strongly believe that reforming the court — especially by expanding it — is the cornerstone for re-building American democracy,” said Brian Fallon, director of Demand Justice and a former Hillary Clinton press secretary. “The Kavanaugh court is a partisan operation, and democracy simply cannot function when stolen courts operate as political shills. We are thrilled to work in coalition with the team at Pack the Courts to undo the politicization of the judiciary.”

The effort is likely to prompt more debate among Democrats as to whether they should fight to restore norms and civility that have dissipated in the Trumpov era or engage in tougher, brass-knuckle politics.

Pack the Courts Executive Director Aaron Belkin, a political science professor at San Francisco State University, said he thinks norms are important but “in this moment, only one side is honoring norms meaning they aren’t really norms anymore.” He said adding justices to the Supreme Court, which has had nine members since 1869, could “restore democracy to our democracy” with decisions on issues like voting rights and gerrymandering.

The group’s strategy centers on influencing the left’s political debate with a combination of producing social media videos, enlisting online influencers, conducting polling on individual court cases and partnering with academics on research. Belkin said his group has retained Means of Production, a socialist digital marketing firm that has become famous for its viral Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez web ad, to produce its online content. CNN’s W. Kamau Bell has joined the group’s advisory board to spread its message.

Without the millions of dollars that some progressive groups have saved, the lean operation will be active online and attempt to set up a field operation to pressure lawmakers — tactics that progressive groups like Indivisible and the Sunrise Movement have used to significant effect.

Sean McElwee, Pack the Courts’ director of research and polling, succeeded last year in pushing #AbolishIce into the Democratic Party mainstream and hopes court packing will be next by focusing on the 2020 presidential candidates. “Progressives strongly disapprove of numerous Supreme Court decisions and increasingly see the court as a partisan institution, and that provides a strong incentive for presidential candidates to endorse court packing,” McElwee said.

And at least one presidential candidate appears open to the idea. “I don’t think we should be laughing at it,” South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg said at an event in Philadelphia last week. “Because in some ways, it’s no more a shattering of norms than what’s already been done to get the judiciary to where it is today.”

Support from Onward Together

Hillary Clinton's PAC Onward Together lists Demand Justice as a partner and has provided them with financial support.