CivicCharge: Reclaiming Federalism for Justice
Turning state power into an offensive weapon to prosecute fascism and protect our people.
This initiative is part of:
Phase Two of The American Manifesto: Civic Repossession
Check out our blueprint for turning protest into power and noise into real, tangible change. CivicCharge isn’t a theoretical concept — it’s a legal battering ram aimed directly at the heart of Trump’s fascist regime. It transforms outrage into state-level indictments, civil suits, and criminal prosecutions, forcing every enabler and conspirator to pay a real price.
This is how we turn defense into offense, reclaim federalism for justice, and show the country that accountability isn’t optional — it’s inevitable.
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For decades, we’ve defended. We’ve fought to block bans, to protect voters, to shield communities from state violence. And we must keep doing that.
But defending alone is not enough. While we scramble to hold the line, Trump’s fascist regime abducts residents, defies court orders, and openly brags about their power to break the law without consequence.
If we want to survive this, we must not only protect — we must punish. We must force them to pay a price for every assault on our people and our democracy.
They Accuse Us of Lawfare Anyway, We Might as Well Do It
They’ve spent years accusing us of “lawfare” when all we did was hold criminals accountable — from January 6th insurrectionists to Trump’s endless pile of felonies.
Meanwhile, they weaponize the DOJ to transform the federal government into a mafia by another name. They coerce local leaders like Eric Adams into helping with illegal ICE raids. They threaten and silence the opposition. They kidnap residents and disappear them into foreign prisons.
If they’re going to accuse us of lawfare anyway — and openly practice it themselves — we’d be fools not to actually do it.
I’m not calling for us to file frivolous suits. I’m calling for us to take every single opportunity to hit them with the full force of state law every time they act illegally. We should not decide whether to prosecute based on whether we think the cases are easy. We should decide based on whether they are right.
But the "Supremacy Clause..."
Sure, the Supremacy Clause exists. But so does Federalism.
Federalism means states aren’t just administrative arms of the federal government — they’re sovereign entities with their own constitutions, laws, and law enforcement powers. It’s the system designed to keep power from concentrating in one place, to ensure local accountability when the federal government goes rogue.
For decades, the right has weaponized federalism to push theocracy and white supremacy — banning books, criminalizing abortion, suppressing voters, and shielding extremist militias. If they can use it to destroy, we can use it to protect our people.
And here’s the most important point: The Supremacy Clause doesn’t give the federal government free reign to break the law. It doesn’t grant blanket immunity for crimes.
When federal actors act illegally, they step outside the scope of lawful authority. They’re no longer acting “under color of law” — they’re acting as criminals.
That’s when we must be ready to hit them with the full force of state law. Prosecute them. And when they try to hide behind the Supremacy Clause, expose the lie.
When they try to remove the case to federal court, show the judge exactly what we already know: Trump’s DOJ is compromised, corrupt, and cannot be trusted to prosecute itself. They can’t be both the defendant and the prosecutor.
Keep those cases in state court. Secure state convictions. Throw the criminals in state prison, where Trump can’t pardon them, and where no federal power can reach in to rescue them.
This is not just legally sound. It’s a moral imperative. Because when the federal government becomes a criminal enterprise, the states are not just allowed to act — they’re obligated to.
The Abrego Garcia Example
They abducted Kilmar Abrego Garcia and rendered him to a torture prison — CECOT in El Salvador — in direct violation of a federal court order.
You can’t both violate a court order and claim to act “under color of law.”
But it gets worse. They contracted CECOT, where Garcia has alleged he was tortured. If the DOJ contracted CECOT, then the DOJ owns the actions done by CECOT. And in the U.S., you can’t torture people “under color of law.”
All of this was done without any due process. Even if torture were legal (which it isn’t), sentencing someone to torture without due process would never qualify as lawful.
So everyone involved — from the agents who abducted Abrego Garcia, to the Attorney General who signed their name to it, to the Secretary of Homeland Security who negotiated the deal with CECOT — must be prosecuted by Maryland to the fullest extent of the law.
Kidnapping. False imprisonment. Conspiracy. Torture.
And hey — unlike them, we’ll even give them what they denied Garcia: due process.
The Blueprint: The Abrego Garcia Brief
To show exactly how this works in practice, we put together a full legal brief detailing how Maryland can — and must — prosecute federal actors for what they did to Abrego Garcia.
This isn’t a symbolic protest. This is a real, actionable strategy that any state can adopt when their residents are abused by the fascist regime.
If your state has residents being abducted, disappeared, or targeted without due process, your attorney general has not only the right but the obligation to act.
We’ve done the heavy lifting on the legal theory, the charges, and the jurisdiction. We’ve shown how to overcome the Supremacy Clause defenses, how to keep cases in state court, and how to secure state-level convictions that Trump can’t touch.
This is the roadmap. All that’s left is courage.
What We Need
We don’t just need people to read this. We need people to build this:
Lawyers and paralegals willing to volunteer, review the Abrego Garcia brief, and help develop similar offensive legal strategies in other states and for other cases.
Community organizers and influencers to carry this message into every city council, every state attorney general’s office, every union hall, every online space — to make offensive legal action the new frontline of resistance.
Pressure builders: everyday people who will call their state AG, confront their local officials, and demand that they stop hiding behind excuses and start prosecuting.
Because the fascist regime is counting on our fear and complacency. They think we’ll just keep defending and never go on offense.
Let’s prove them dead wrong.
Join the Offensive
We will keep defending — because our people need shields. But shields alone don’t win wars. Offense does.
It’s time to make the fascist regime pay for every crime, every violation of rights, every act of cruelty. Not with hashtags. Not with hand-wringing. With indictments, subpoenas, trials, and prison sentences.
🗣️ Share this strategy.
✍️ Volunteer your skills — legal, organizing, media, outreach.
📞 Demand your state AG stop cowering and start prosecuting.
Because defense alone is survival. Prosecution is victory.
This is your fight. Join it.
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Subscribe now—because silence is surrender. And we do not surrender.
Thanks for all the work that went into this.
On a related note I wonder about the deportations to other 3rd party destinations ( apparently happening a lot). Aside from just being horrific, don't they interfere with the obligation of congressional oversight? I doubt a US congress person could " oversee" prison conditions in Sudan, etc. Isn't there a legal /constitutional issue here, in spite of the Supreme Court acquiescence to this hideous practice?