SOCIAL JUSTICE BLOG

Read and share extraordinary stories from the frontlines of social change

Impact Fund Sets New Grantmaking Record In Support Of Communities Seeking Justice
Litigation Funding, Social Justice Teddy Basham-Witherington Litigation Funding, Social Justice Teddy Basham-Witherington

Impact Fund Sets New Grantmaking Record In Support Of Communities Seeking Justice

In our summer grantmaking cycle, we granted $203,650 to support nine impact cases brought by communities confronting injustice. This is the highest amount we have ever granted in one quarter, and an exciting end to our largest grantmaking year so far, with a total of $690,150 granted to support 27 communities across the U.S. and Canada seeking their day in court. 

Our new grantees this quarter are doing amazing work on behalf of LGBTQ+ students, immigrants, Indigenous people, people with disabilities, unhoused people, and incarcerated people. We are so grateful that we can help support these important cases. Here are the inspiring stories behind them. 

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Can Britney Vote?
Voting Rights, Conservatorship, Britney Spears Teddy Basham-Witherington Voting Rights, Conservatorship, Britney Spears Teddy Basham-Witherington

Can Britney Vote?

The plight of Britney Spears, the pop star who has been under a conservatorship for the past 13 years, has plastered the news headlines recently. While even a quick skimmer of the Britney saga suggests the potential for financial abuse, like how much she pays the people who continue to benefit from her conservatorship, and restrictions on her reproductive rights such as whether she can stop using birth control, we don’t know if Ms. Spears can vote. If she is like thousands of other people whose voting rights are curtailed through a court-ordered guardianship (called conservatorship in California), she may have been disenfranchised without any consideration of whether she in fact remains capable of voting. Categorical bans on voting by people subject to guardianship or conservatorship exist in at least a dozen states and may be ripe for legal challenge.

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