Step-by-Step Organizer Toolkit for the People's Campaign for the Constitution

• Step 1: Reach Out
• Step 2: Build a Coalition
• Step 3: Hold Representatives Accountable
• PCC Resources

Tactics for the Public Campaign

Use the tactics below to help your coalition hold representatives and candidates publicly accountable. Which tactics you choose depends on your specific situation: your demands, the strength of your power base, whether an election is coming up, and whether there is a contested race in your district.

Public Accountability Forums

Accountability forums can be moderated by local community leaders and/or an expert on the Constitution (for example, a constitutional law professor). Representatives of the local coalition should present the representative or candidate with your demands for restoring constitutional protections. Following this presentation, the public can ask questions about an official's adherence to the Constitution.

Setting up this kind of public forum involves negotiating a schedule with the representative. A good way to start is to send a letter signed by the member groups of your coalition to the representative or candidate requesting a meeting. You can ask the representative or candidate to name a date that would work for her or him within a certain time period, such as a congressional break (also known as a district work period). See dates of these district work periods.

Empty Chair Forums

Even if the representative or candidate(s) do not agree to attend, you can still hold a public meeting. This type of meeting, called an empty chair forum, has several goals:

• Educate the public on the representative's (or candidate's) role in unconstitutional policies. Speakers can respond to the representative's public statements pertaining to constitutional issues.
• Publicize the local effort to gain broader and deeper public support for the coalition's demands.
• Strategize on other creative ways to present the demands to the representative or candidate.

Candidate Questionnaires

Questionnaires are a way to help put the candidates' positions on issues before voters. Use our resources (below) to help you develop your questionnaire.

• NEW! Defending the Constitution: A 2008 Election Issue: Trifold brochure with questions for candidates and BORDC's positions on constitutional issues
• Sample questions for candidates
• Representatives' voting records
• Blank form for recording incumbents' voting records

Town Hall Meetings

Some representatives hold town hall meetings during periods when they’re back in their own district. Check your representative’s website or call the district offices for a schedule of town hall meetings or other public events.

The Rural Organizing Project organizes people to turn out for town hall meetings and take over the meeting. The purpose of this tactic is to put legislators on record about their positions and to demonstrate public support for the coalition’s demands.  You can use this tactic without going through all the effort of independently organizing a forum, but at a town hall meeting, your coalition’s leadership will have far less say over the agenda. The key is to organize people ahead of time so that group members are prepared with pointed questions relating to your demands. You can also take the opportunity to present a resolution to your representative stating the coalition’s demands.

Candidate Debates

When candidate debates happen in your district, you can organize your members to attend and try to have the moderator ask questions relating to your demands. You can also run your public accountability forum as a debate among candidates.

Local Resolutions

Eight states and more than 400 municipalities have passed stating that they refuse to carry out laws and policies that violate their residents’ constitutional rights (see a map or alphabetical list). If your local government has not already passed a resolution, this strategy may be useful to demonstrate community support for your demands. If your local government has already passed such a resolution, use it to support your coalition’s demands. You can also encourage your local government to further protect civil liberties by enacting ordinances instructing local police not to cooperate with federal spying and immigration enforcement and to challenge illegal national security letters.