Dear Avaazers,

Our hearing just ended, and the judge absolutely DESTROYED Monsanto’s subpoena on Avaaz!!!!

He said the subpoena would have a “tremendous chilling effect”, saying “no member would want to have their privacy and their activity known” and actually gave Monsanto a lecture on democracy and free speech!!

Avaaz members in the courtroom spontaneously broke into applause and huge smiles at his words. Here’s a quick video filmed minutes ago from our Campaign Director Iain Keith on the steps of the courthouse:

This subpoena was terrifying and would have had Avaaz spend months and hundreds of thousands of dollars digging up and handing over to Monsanto everything anyone on our team ever said or wrote about them for YEARS. Including even the email addresses and identities of our members who had sent messages to officials about Monsanto!

Even worse, lawyers told us that courts in New York tend to AUTOMATICALLY GRANT requests like this! Because usually, more info means more justice.

But then our community got involved. Over 200,000 of us donated, and we hired the best lawyer in the business — Andrew Celli, who has taken on cases like this before and won. He and his team worked with the Avaaz team to write a ridiculously great takedown of the Monsanto subpoena. It’s long and legalistic, but if you speak that language, it’s a thing of beauty — you can read it here.

Monsanto flew in a top lawyer, a man who’s defended everything from asbestos to lead and arsenic. But between our briefs, and the powerful oral arguments, the judge was convinced, and took the incredibly RARE step of throwing out the ENTIRE subpoena!!! Normally they just narrow the scope of the subpoena to something more reasonable, but the judge couldn’t find anything reasonable in Monsanto’s claims about Avaaz!

It’s a moment to celebrate, but it may not be over.

Monsanto can still appeal, or come at us another way. But we’ve got an amazing win and precedent set, and an amazing legal team, and as ever, an amazing movement that will stand by, stand up, and speak truth to power when it threatens.

The purpose of these big legal attacks is to scare us. I have tears right now as I think about how, with the Avaaz community at our back, I really don’t have to fear stuff like this. Because even the most powerful actors in this world, are not more powerful than the truth, than the power of good people coming together to work for everything we love, than the power of all of us in this incredible movement.

With immense gratitude,
Ricken and the whole Avaaz team.

PS – in another amazing example of our movement, an Avaaz member wrote in in response to our fundraiser, suggesting that the team reach out to Bayer, who are buying Monsanto, to ask them to drop this attack. He then took the initiative to write personally to both me and the CEO of Bayer. The CEO of Bayer actually called him hours later, saying he’d love to talk to me! So, we’re talking on Monday. No idea yet what will come of it, but another example of the ridiculously wonderful movement that we get to be part of. Thanks so much to everyone for being you.

This week, Brett Kavanaugh was caught lying under oath over and over in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

He lied about his views on Roe v. Wade, his role in the Bush administration’s use of torture, whether he received stolen documents while serving in the White House, and more.(1)

This could be the game-changer we need to stop Kavanaugh, but we have to act now.

It’s completely unprecedented to have someone who lies under oath confirmed to the Supreme Court. This is the key moment when we need to make sure Senate Republicans can’t just sweep this under the rug. Will you chip in $5?

Yes, I’ll chip in $5 to help stop Brett Kavanaugh.

Republicans thought Brett Kavanaugh could skate through his confirmation hearings to easy confirmation. But that’s not what happened.

First, Kavanaugh was caught lying about whether he actually considered Roe v. Wade “settled law.” In an email uncovered by The New York Times, Kavanaugh wrote that Roe v. Wade is NOT settled law and can be overturned at any time by the Supreme Court, directly contradicting his sworn testimony under oath.(2)

This is particularly important because Kavanaugh told Republican Senator Susan Collins, who has supported abortion rights in the past, that he considered Roe v. Wade  settled law.(3) Now we know he was lying.

In addition to the lies he told this week, it was revealed the Kavanaugh lied repeatedly during his confirmation hearings to be a federal judge in 2006:

• In 2006, he stated under oath that he wasn’t involved in the development of the Bush administration’s torture policy. Documents released this week show he was.(4)
• He testified in 2006 that he never accessed documents that had been stolen from Democratic staff. Documents released this week show he did.(5)
• He testified in 2006 that he wasn’t involved in the Bush administration’s warrantless wiretapping program. The New York Times found that he was.(6)
• He told the committee in 2006 that he wasn’t involved in the nomination of right-wing judges William Pryor or Thomas Pickering. Now we know he was.(7)

As former Deputy Assistant Attorney General Lisa Graves said, Kavanaugh should be impeached, not confirmed.(8)

But to stop Kavanaugh, we need to keep the pressure on the Senate by flooding them with phone calls, making sure that Democrats stand strong, and calling on undecided Republicans who support abortion rights to face the stark reality that would be presented by Kavanaugh’s appointment.

We can do it if we all step up NOW. Will you chip in $5 to help stop Brett Kavanaugh?

Yours in the fight for justice,

Caitlin, along with Annie, Brenna, Eddie, Emma, Lindsay, Mai, Mary, Molly, Raquel, Rebecca, Scottie, Tim (the Courage team)

Footnotes:
1. https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2018/09/five-times-brett-kavanaugh-appears-to-have-lied-to-congress-while-under-oath
2. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/06/us/politics/kavanaugh-leaked-documents.html
3. https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/21/politics/susan-collins-says-kavanaugh-roe-v-wade-is-settled-law/index.html
4. https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2018/09/five-times-brett-kavanaugh-appears-to-have-lied-to-congress-while-under-oath
5. Ibid.
6. Ibid.
7. Ibid.
8. https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/09/judge-brett-kavanaugh-should-be-impeached-for-lying-during-his-confirmation-hearings.html