March 16 Call-in Day for Fair Judges

The first focus of Operation Democracy is on saving the Supreme Court, and all federal courts, from right-wing judges who will roll back our rights and favor big business over the interests of everyday Americans. We've already gathered 200,000 petition signatures opposing the 20 right-wing judges Bush renominated after they were blocked last year. But on Wednesday, March 16, we're kicking our judicial campaign into high gear with a massive national call-in day to the Senate, and a rally in Washington DC led by Senator Byrd of West Virginia.

Your goal is to get at least 5 calls to each of your senators for each team member i.e. to get five people to call both senators (to make reporting simpler, we'll ask you to track the total number of calls rather than the number of calls per senator - so anyone who makes both calls counts twice, and if you meet your goal, you'll actually report 10 total calls) . Recruit callers however you like: hand out flyers at work, ask family & friends, stand at a table outside the post office with your cell phone so people can call right then, knock on your neighbors' doors, etc.

Here's what you need do:

Before Wednesday:

1. Make a plan with your team, if you haven't already. Decide how you're going to generate calls, and how each person is going to participate. You might want to meet, or at least talk by phone.

2. Read background material. Here's some helpful info on the judicial fight and the "nuclear option", as well as a guide to canvassing (getting calls door-to-door) and a guide to tabling (standing in front of a supermarket or other high-traffic area). For more info, try our frequently asked questions page.

3. Download materials you'll need. We have provided a flyer that explains the issue, with the names and numbers of your senators. We also have a suggested outreach script for talking to people. We will email you a sample message to forward to friends and family, with a special link they can use to report their calls so we credit them to your team.

On Wednesday:

4. During the day, watch our progress! Click here to track our results, hour by hour, and--if you're on a team--see which of the people you emailed have actually reported making calls.

5. Report the results of your team's in-person outreach. We want to track how many calls you were able to generate through your offline, in-person efforts (tabling, canvassing, etc). If you're a team member, call or email your Team Leader with the number of calls you've been able to confirm from offline outreach, as well as the number of flyers you've handed out.

If you're a team leader, please gather these numbers and update us using the " report offline results" link on your team tracking page (to login, you'll need to enter the same email address you used when you created your team. We'll also send you this link by email). You can give us multiple updates -- you don't need to wait until everyone has reported in.

6. Tell us about your experience. Please fill out our follow-up survey to tell us what went well, any highlights you want to share, and what we can improve for next time, We'll report back to you how the call-in day went across the country and what we learned.

Questions? Check out the Call-in day Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) or the more general Operation Democracy FAQ. Both pages have details about how to get in touch with us if your question isn't answered there.