Demand Justice is a left-of-center advocacy group created in early 2018 that aims to influence the political leanings of America’s courts by supporting the appointment of liberal judicial nominees and opposing right-of-center nominees. The organization acts primarily through media campaigns against nominated and unconfirmed judicial nominees. Demand Justice was established as a project of Sixteen Thirty Fund, a 501(c)(4) social welfare organization characterized as “dark money” by critics which hosts a number of similar advocacy groups advocating for a left-wing policy agenda. [1] Demand Justice itself has been characterized by the left-leaning Center for Responsive Politics as a “liberal dark money” group. [2]
On May 5, 2021, Demand Justice and Demand Justice Initiative both registered in Washington, D.C. as nonprofit corporations, indicating that the organizations were no longer merely projects housed by the Sixteen Thirty Fund and the New Venture Fund, and were pursuing separate nonprofit status. [3] [4] The beneficial owner of both organizations was listed as Ezra Reese, a high-profile left-leaning lawyer formerly at the law firm Perkins Coie, and the organizations’ new Washington D.C. business address was listed as 1010 Vermont Avenue NW, Suite 300. [5] [6]
The group is most notable for its activities opposing the confirmations of Supreme Court Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett and proposing “court packing,” or adding seats to be filled by Demand Justice’s political allies to the Supreme Court.[7][8][9]
