The AoC Checklist features clear, well-researched actions for Americans who value democracy, equality, voting, and decency. We are a big tent for all people who want a kinder, flourishing nation.
This Week’s Actions
Action 1: Ensure that no one is above the law.
Source: AoCC
Thank you to the 460 Americans of Conscience who completed this action!
Contact: Your two senators (look up).
Script: Hi, I’m one of your constituents in [ZIP], asking you to preserve Congress’ authority to check presidential power. No one, not even a president or vice president, should have immunity from criminal law. Please co-sponsor and pass S. 4973, the No Kings Act. Thank you.
Action 2: Place common-sense limits on the declaration of national emergencies.
Source: Brennan Center
Thank you to the 276 Americans of Conscience who completed this action!
Contact: Your two senators and one House rep (look up).
Script: Hi, I’m one of your constituents in [ZIP], asking you to reform the National Emergencies Act. While presidents should have the power to declare a national emergency, such declarations should be limited in length and require Congressional approval to extend. The incoming president’s documented history of abusing emergency declarations demonstrates that Congress must reform the act now to prevent future abuse and overreach. Thank you.
Action 3: Oppose presidential misuse of U.S. military as a domestic police force.
Source: Brennan Center
Thank you to the 245 Americans of Conscience who completed this action!
Contact: Your two senators (look up).
Script: Hi, I’m a constituent from [ZIP] insisting you support reforming the Insurrection Act, which currently allows the president unchecked use of the military as a domestic police force. This antiquated law needs to be modernized, narrowed, and clarified to provide the Commander in Chief emergency flexibility and to codify crucial checks against abuse of power. I’m asking [NAME] to cosponsor and pass the Insurrection Act of 2024 (S. 4699). Thank you.
Action 4: Prevent the execution of people on federal death row.
Source: Death Penalty Action
Thank you to the 302 Americans of Conscience who completed this action!
Contact: President Biden at 202-456-1111 or via the White House contact form.
Script: Hello, I’m contacting you from [STATE] appalled by the incoming administration’s stated intent to execute all prisoners on federal death row. This inhumane and outdated punishment raises profound concerns, including its arbitrary application, inherent racial bias, and the established risk of executing innocent people. I’m joining with hundreds of human rights organizations in urging you to commute every death sentence remaining on federal and military death rows. Thank you.
Alternate: Sign the Action Network Petition.
Action 5: Demand accountability and support healing for Indigenous communities.
Source: NDN Collective
Thank you to the 130 Americans of Conscience who completed this action!
Contact: Your two senators and one House representative (look up).
Script: Hello, I’m contacting you from [ZIP] because I’m committed to delivering on promises of justice and healing following President Biden’s apology to Indigenous Peoples for the U.S. government’s long-running boarding school system. For over 150 years, the system separated families in order to eradicate Indigenous cultures and language and seize tribal lands. Please act now to pass the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies Act (S. 1723/H.R. 7227). Thank you.
Action 6: Support clemency for Missourian Chris Collings.
Source: Missourians to Abolish the Death Penalty
Thank you to the 154 Americans of Conscience who completed this action!
Contact: Missouri Governor Mike Parson at 573-751-3222 or via the Governor’s Office contact form.
Script: Hello, I’m contacting you from [STATE] on behalf of Missourian Chris Collings who is scheduled to be executed on December 3rd. Mr. Collings’ trial was tainted by legal failures that cast significant doubt on the fairness of his sentence, and he has demonstrated rehabilitation and growth within the prison community and through his work in the Puppies For Parole program. I respectfully request that you commute his death sentence and prevent irreparable harm. Thank you.
Alternate: Sign the MADP Petition (uncheck “send me updates from MADP” to avoid being added to an email list).
Action 7: Prevent the targeted detention of long-time U.S. residents.
Source: United We Dream
Thank you to the 56 Americans of Conscience who completed this action!
In the coming months and years, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients face further uncertainty. Advocacy groups are urging Dreamers to renew their DACA status before the transition of power. United We Dream helps aspiring Americans living in the U.S. maintain a level of protection and security.
Donate: To the United We Dream DACA Renewal Fund.
Action 8: Support the Neighbors Not Enemies Act to repeal the outdated and dangerous Alien Enemies Act.
Source: Brennan Center
Thank you to the 192 Americans of Conscience who completed this action!
Contact: Your two senators and one House rep (look up).
Script: Hi, I’m one of your constituents in [ZIP], asking you to repeal the Alien Enemies Act, a dangerously outdated law that was last used during WWII to imprison residents of Japanese, Italian, and German ancestry. Detaining and deporting people, including those seeking asylum, should not be a power wielded unilaterally by any president. Please co-sponsor and pass (S. 1747/H.R. 3610), the Neighbors Not Enemies Act. Thank you.
Acts of Gratitude
We believe in gratitude as a tool for change. We will print a letter of thanks from Americans of Conscience with your signature and mail it to the recipient. Your information will be removed from this website no later than four weeks after the Checklist’s publication date.
Thank Govs. Maura Healy (D–MA), Kathy Hochul (D–NY), Gavin Newsom (D–CA), and JB Pritzker (D–IL) for planning ahead to safeguard the rule of law, the civil rights of their constituents’ reproductive freedoms, climate action, and immigrant families in 2025 and beyond.
If you’d like to mail your own personal expression of gratitude, use these addresses:
MH: Office of Constituent Services, Massachusetts State House, 24 Beacon St., Office of the Governor, Room 280, Boston, MA 02133
KH: NYS State Capitol Building, Albany, NY 12224
GN: 1021 O Street, Suite 9000, Sacramento, CA 95814
JBP: Office of the Governor, 555 W. Monroe St., 16th Floor Chicago, IL 60661
Thank you to the 240 Americans of Conscience who completed this action!
Good News
If you find good news for democracy, equality, and the planet, share it with us here!
- The House brings the bipartisan Social Security Fairness Act to the floor, which would ensure full Social Security benefits for workers who are also eligible for other pensions.
- A federal jury convicts a former police officer of using excessive force during the raid of Breonna Taylor’s apartment that resulted in her death.
- Ruben Gallego is elected to the Senate, becoming the first Latino senator to represent Arizona in the upper chamber.
- Sarah McBride is elected to the House, becoming the first ever openly transgender individual to serve in Congress.
- CT voters approve a state constitutional amendment to expand a vote-by-mail option to all voters.
- MT voters elect 10 new Native American representatives and senators to the state legislature, boosting the total number of Indigenous elected officials to 12.
- NC: A federal court dismissed a lawsuit aimed to disqualify over 225,000 registered voters. The Trump-appointed judge stated that doing otherwise would move North Carolina “away from a democratic form of government.”
- NM: Cindy Nava is elected to serve in the state legislature, becoming one of the first former DACA recipients to be elected to public office in the U.S.
- PA: Patty Kim is elected to the state Senate, becoming the first AAPI woman to serve there.
- RI voters reject holding a constitutional convention, which could have posed risks to immigration rights, LGBTQ+ rights, and abortion rights.
- TX: Julie Johnson becomes the first openly LGBTQ+ person elected to Congress from a traditionally conservative Southern state.
- WY: A court rules that both a state ban on medication abortion and a broader ban on all methods of abortion violate the state constitution and cannot be enforced.
- Sonoma County, CA healthcare workers will wear masks in patient care areas from to better protect patients and themselves from the spread of COVID-19, flu, and other respiratory diseases during November-April.
- Homicides decline 30-40% in major U.S. cities including Aurora, CO., Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, El Paso, Houston, Jacksonville, FL,. Los Angeles, Montgomery County, MD., New Orleans, Orlando, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C.
- Women will make up a majority of the Los Angeles City Council for the first time in history.
- The satire publication The Onion and the nonprofit Everytown for Gun Safety win the auction for ownership of a website previously owned by a prominent conspiracy theorist.
- The nonprofit Queer Liberation Library connects LGBTQ+ individuals with literature and resources that celebrate and empower their community.
- The ACLU files a lawsuit seeking details of the incoming administration’s deportation agenda to better safe-guard aspiring Americans’ civil liberties.
- American Immigration Council is preparing legal challenges and campaigns against likely rollbacks of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) and humanitarian parole programs for immigrants from Cuba, Haiti, Venezuela, and other countries.
- Voters in states and localities across the country approve ballot measures that will address housing access and affordability.
- Author Daniel Handler (aka Lemony Snicket) hosts a giveaway of books that have been censored in the U.S. at present and throughout history.
- AT&T is closing the digital divide in Cuyahoga County, OH by providing refurbished laptops and free internet access to students and low-income families.
- HACK Robotics Academy offers free coding workshops for kids through Austin’s library system.
- After six years of rewilding efforts, endangered tigers are returning to a Kazakhstan wildlife preserve.
- Tens of thousands of people rally at New Zealand’s Parliament against a bill that would narrow Indigenous rights.
Need inspiration?
- What we will do going forward into 2025
- Is it possible to climb the mountain ahead?
- What we know about thriving through adversity
Support the work
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Contact your members of Congress
Write, call, or email your members of Congress.
Please in the next checklist include some transgender action points. Republicans are after us, and Democrats in congress seem willing to throw us under the bus. I’ve been trans for a long time, and I don’t want to see my friends start dying again.
Hi Kay! Thank you so much for your comment. Trans rights are human rights, and we’ve been amplifying calls to action to support our trans sibs for the last eight years. https://americansofconscience.com/?s=trans
We’re as committed as ever as anti-trans sentiment increases. We see you. Your life matters. It’s personal too as some of our team are NB and queer. We are in this together.
I feel like I’m wasting my time sending emails to Lindsay Graham, Tim Scott and William Timmons. Do you honestly feel it makes any difference?
It might feel like you’re shouting into the void, but you’re not. 100% guarantee: Nothing will change without clear communication. When enough people call, this can change how even conservative members of Congress vote and legislate.
Contact your members of Congress with:
Persuasive stories: Sharing your personal experiences with issues they oppose (for example, trying to access emergency reproductive care or having difficulty voting due to a closed polling place) has the potential to convince conscientious elected officials to reconsider their stance.
Your views: Every time you call, your opinion is recorded by a staffer. When you’re among many who are advocating for or against an issue, those daily tallies can influence your elected officials’ priorities. There is power in numbers, especially in election years with close races.
Requests: Just because they disagree agree with you on most issues, doesn’t mean they oppose everything. Congress has been gridlocked for years and is holding fewer subcommittee hearings. Insist that they work collaboratively with their peers, ask them to co-sponsor bipartisan legislation, or make public statements for or against specific issues.
As the conservative branch of American politics continues to fracture, some will choose a path of democracy and equality over extremism. It requires optimism and work on our part, but your voice might be the proverbial straw that gets them there.
I have the opposite issue from the commenter above–I live in a blue state and my senators & representative are almost always already co-sponsors of the legislation this list asks us to write them about. I always check to see if they’re a co-sponsor before I write and if they are, then I change the script to say I’m contacting them to thank them for their support of the legislation. I’m sure they appreciate getting thanked–but similar to the above commenter, I don’t necessarily feel like I’m doing much to help.
Hi Elizabeth! Thanks so much for your comment! We get this question a lot too. Here’s what we believe about the value of contacting our left-leaning representatives. We usually presume your like-minded MoC will do the right thing, but it’s important to remember how flawed our democracy is. Every senator and House rep prioritizes their donors over constituents. Until we can overturn Citizens United, contacting them reminds who they really work for (you).
I love your strategy of expressing gratitude. We strongly recommend this because these compliments often go on the top of the daily pile and send a message that you approve of the decisions they’re making. This matters a lot, especially when they’re up for reelection.
In addition, here are other ways that you can usefully communicate with your MoCs to best effect:
Stories: Sharing your personal experiences (for example, trying to access reproductive care, or having difficulty buying a home) is what your elected official needs in order to illustrate the importance of a new law or legislation.
Requests: Just because they agree with you, doesn’t mean they’re doing everything they can to further a cause. Are they doing enough to address the climate crisis or reversing reproductive choice? As I mentioned in my reply above, you can insist that they use their influence to move the needle on issues on urgent issues, not just through legislation, but allocating money to specific departments (like SBA dollars in the wake of natural disasters) or healing the divide through bipartisan collaboration.
The bottom line is that, yes, while there are lots of other ways to effect change, no citizen is exempt calling our MoCs–red or blue. This is how a representative democracy works. We can let them listen to their biggest donors, or we can remind them–kindly, encouragingly–to represent us and what we care about.
Thanks for asking!