Lawyers for Good Government (L4GG) was proud to join Congressman Troy A. Carter, Sr. (D-LA) and local and national climate justice leaders at an Environmental Justice Roundtable hosted at the Greater New Orleans Foundation. The discussion focused on recent harmful Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) decisions—including the termination of federal grant awards and the rollback of critical environmental protections—and how we can continue to push environmental justice forward under the Trump Administration.
Today, Lawyers for Good Government (L4GG) is proud to launch the Pro Bono Litigation Corps (PBLC)—a first-of-its-kind initiative mobilizing experienced attorneys to take on some of the most pressing constitutional challenges of our time.
As we commemorate the two-year anniversary of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) today, August 16, there is much to celebrate about this historic legislation. The IRA represents the largest-ever climate investment in our country’s history, creating unprecedented opportunities for clean energy savings.
However, we at L4GG are acutely aware that historically marginalized communities often lack the resources to access the IRA’s historic funding opportunities. In response, we have intensified our efforts over the past two years to ensure that the benefits of the IRA reach those who need them most. See what we’ve been up to!
Not enough people are talking about the water crisis in Jackson, MS. On Tuesday, the Mississippi governor declared a state of emergency for Jackson’s water system, the city’s largest treatment plant. Most of the city’s 150,000 residents are without running water, having to rely on bottled water for drinking, showering, brushing their teeth, and cooking.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Lawyers for Good Government (L4GG) today delivered an open letter to the United States Senate signed by 2,631 American lawyers and legal professionals from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico, calling on every senator to oppose the confirmation of Todd Blanche as Attorney General of the United States.
Read L4GG’s official statement in response to President Donald Trump settling his $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS in exchange for a $1.776 billion fund to compensate those who claim they were targets of government "weaponization," and new reporting that the IRS will also be barred from pursuing tax claims against Trump.
Yesterday, the United States Supreme Court took the extraordinary step of immediately certifying its decision in Louisiana v. Callais, bypassing its own standard 32 day delay. In doing so, it gave Louisiana Republicans the green light to immediately redraw their congressional maps, hurting minority voters and upturning the regularity of our electoral system after votes have already been cast. The result: two majority-Black districts, drawn to give their residents fair shot at representation, are now at imminent risk of elimination after last week’s decision all but erased Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.
Today, Lawyers for Good Government (L4GG) filed an amicus brief before the U.S. Supreme Court in Harris v. Bessent, urging the Court to uphold long-standing limits on presidential removal power and protect the independence of the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB), the agency responsible for adjudicating federal employee appeals.
The case centers on whether the President can remove MSPB members at will, an action L4GG argues would undermine due process protections for federal workers and erode the constitutional requirement of impartial adjudication.
L4GG filed the brief alongside amici Professors Nick Bednar, the McKnight Land-Grant Professor at the University of Minnesota Law School; Victoria Nourse, the Ralph V. Whitworth Professor in Law at Georgetown University Law Center; and Lawyers Defending American Democracy.
Professor Bednar, an expert in administrative law and the civil service, and Professor Nourse, a former appellate litigator at the Department of Justice and one of the nation’s foremost experts on Congress and its constitutional history, together provide historical and constitutional analysis demonstrating that Congress has long exercised its authority to insulate adjudicatory bodies from political interference.
The brief, which you can read in full here, argues:
The MSPB is a purely adjudicatory body. It functions like a court, hearing evidence, applying the law, and issuing binding decisions in disputes between federal employees and the government.
Congress has authority to protect adjudicatory independence. From the Founding era onward, Congress has created bodies insulated from political control to ensure fair and impartial decision-making.
At-will removal would violate due process. Allowing the President to remove MSPB members freely would compromise the neutrality of the tribunal and undermine the Fifth Amendment guarantee of a fair hearing.
Weakening MSPB independence risks system-wide consequences. Removing protections could destabilize the Board’s ability to function, leaving thousands of federal employees without a meaningful forum to challenge wrongful termination.
“The Constitution requires that when the government acts against its own employees, those individuals are entitled to a fair hearing before an impartial decisionmaker,” said Professor Nourse. “Allowing political control over that process would fundamentally undermine those protections.”
Lawyers for Good Government (L4GG) is a nonprofit organization that harnesses the power of 125,000 lawyers, law students, and advocates in the fight for justice. We identify where lawyers can make the greatest impact and mobilize them to defend democracy and the rule of law, protect civil and human rights, and advance environmental justice through coordinated legal action and advocacy efforts that create meaningful change for all Americans.
