Public Citizen Helps Build a Nationwide Movement
The number of people it takes to fuel positive democratic change might be smaller than you think. Research shows that sustained, nonviolent action by just 3.5% of a country’s population can begin to topple authoritarian rule. For the United States, that would mean roughly.
11 million people—a threshold Public Citizen has been working to reach through litigation, organizing, and mass mobilization as a part of the No Kings movement. Across multiple fronts, Public Citizen has helped build and sustain a growing movement to challenge the Trump administration. That work builds on the foundation of the “Not Above the Law” network that Public Citizen helped launch during Trump’s first term and which we currently co-chair. The Not Above the Law network has worked this term to craft the red lines of authoritarian overreach that lead to activation needs, worked with our partners to mobilize hundreds of thousands nationwide, and done organizing work around different sectors of society, like lawyers, farmers and faith, to oppose Trump’s authoritarianism.
That work feeds into the largest mobilizing network against authoritarianism. Public Citizen helped spearhead the Hands Off! protests last April and the subsequent No Kings protests. Each action expanded the movement’s reach. In March, more than 8 million people participated in No Kings events across more than 3,300 communities, spanning every congressional district and even reaching Antarctica.
Public Citizen helped plan events, facilitate partner organizations’ engagement, lead media outreach, and build a student presence.
Along with the No Kings events, we’ve played a key role, often providing the organizing infrastructure for other nationwide protests, including May Day, John Lewis Good Trouble Lives On, “ICE Out” days of action, Communities Not Cages, and Vets Say No! All of these efforts have aimed to build sustained community power against corporate influence and government abuses.
Alongside nationwide actions, Public Citizen has expanded organizing on college campuses, particularly around May Day, cultivating a new generation of student leaders. We also worked with legal organizations to coordinate Law Day on May 1, during which attorneys held events reaffirming their oaths to the U.S. Constitution at a time when the rule of law is under attack.
Looking ahead, Public Citizen has been preparing for the November elections by organizing voter engagement and protection efforts. Planned mobilizations include the John Lewis days of action, running from July 17 – the anniversary of Lewis’ death – through July 19. Under the banner “Teach, Reach, Preach,” these events will feature nationwide teach-ins, voter registration drives, and faith-based outreach. We have partnered with the Transformative Justice Coalition and others to coordinate actions in July for the past five years, including more than 1,700 events last year.
Finally, the organization has been preparing volunteers to support election protection efforts, including observation, rides to the polls, and community-based turnout initiatives.
Taken together, these efforts are building a sustained, growing grassroots movement—one capable of checking the worst abuses of this administration and helping to restore democratic accountability. Reaching that 11 million mark is an ambitious goal, but the momentum is already taking shape.
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We also wanted to highlight one of the additional mobilizations that we have helped to build from its inception. Disappeared In America – A Campaign of Not Above the Law Coalition Campaign
Since its launch in the summer of 2025, the Disappeared in America campaign has led a series of peaceful public actions lifting the stories of those directly impacted by the anti-immigrant policies of the current administration and to call for the end of the occupation of targeted areas by the National Guard and ICE.
Disappeared in America is a campaign housed within the Not Above the Law Coalition which is co-led by Public Citizen with MoveOn, Stand Up America, the Constitutional Accountability Center and hundreds of other organizations.
In November of 2025, Disappeared in America coordinated a nationwide series of actions to end the kidnapping, detention and deportation of our neighbors and to defend the due process rights of all people. Partnering with the Detention Watch Network and the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, we led the “Day of the Dead/Dia de los Muertos Action” to honor the thirty two lives lost in ICE detention in 2025 and “ICE Out of Home Depot actions.”
Recently, Disappeared in America mobilized in response to the killing of two community members in Minneapolis by ICE agents. As part of the ICE Out for Good and No Kings coalition, Public Citizen supported a series of trainings on best practices on documenting and recording ICE raids which attracted more than 100,000 viewers on YouTube.
- Eyes on Ice training
- Media Highlights
Background
The Disappeared In America campaign brings together a diverse coalition of immigrant rights, faith-based, racial justice, and pro-democracy organizations determined to expose and resist the Trump administration’s abuses of power. The campaign’s mission is rooted in defending the basic principles of justice, transparency, and Constitutional rights — values that are under direct threat when people can be detained, deported, or disappeared without accountability.
Through collective action and visual storytelling, Disappeared In America seeks to humanize the impact of these policies and mobilize Americans to demand change.