Meet the Law Group Sued Over Breaking the ‘KKK Act’ That Wants to Reshape U.S. Elections
(The Emancipator) – In the lead-up to the 2020 presidential contest, as Donald Trump attacked mail-in voting and spread misinformation about widespread voter fraud, Public Interest Legal Foundation founder and president J. Christian Adams had a message for the activists at a closed-door gathering at the Council for National Policy.
“Be not afraid of the accusations that you’re a voter suppressor, you’re a racist and so forth,” Adams told the group, according to The Washington Post.
Over the next six years, his group has worked to help construct a de facto national voter roll database that they use to inform “aggressive litigation.” The organization, which describes its mission as preserving “election integrity,” has targeted election maps in Black and Brown communities.
Between 2020 and 2026, the group was instrumental in lodging at least 44 lawsuits, ranging from legal battles over voter data in 18 states and the District of Columbia to filing in seven cases involving election map challenges, an Emancipator investigation found. To track the suits, The Emancipator examined roughly 90 court cases involving the foundation and cross-compared them with entries in research platforms, legal databases, and news coverage.
The Emancipator reached out several times to Public Interest Legal Foundation for comment, but did not receive a response.
Public Interest Legal Foundation is part of a network of well-funded groups that are undermining voting rights by pushing the limits of election rules and demanding voter information ahead of the midterm elections.
Court documents also show that Public Interest Legal Foundation has been active in “amicus curiae” filings, offering opinions to the court about ongoing cases. Through those filings, the group supported Trump’s executive order that sought to end birthright citizenship.
The legal group worked on a lawsuit noted for supporting Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election, and they defended an election map in Tarrant County, Texas, from accusations it diluted Black and Latino voting power.
They also defended or supported gerrymandered maps and election restrictions in Alabama, Florida, Galveston and Laredo, Texas, Kentucky, and Georgia, including ones that were regarded as racist by civil rights groups.
A case involving the group sought to prevent public school students in Howard County, Maryland, one of the most diverse districts in the state, from voting for a student school board member. Roughly seven out of 10 students in Howard County Public Schools are Black or Brown, according to data from the Howard County Public School System.