EqualCitizens.US

EqualCitizens.US has been accused of campaigning to weaken voter integrity and restrict campaign speech using campaign finance regulation, ³ and it has supported federal legislation backed by Democrats to increase federal control over election administration. ⁴ It has also campaigned against existing policy such as the filibuster rule that sets a supermajority threshold to advance to Senate passage of federal legislation. ⁵ The group has filed several lawsuits against state governments in efforts to restrict personal donations to Super PACs. As of June 2026, EqualCitizens.US is supporting an ongoing lawsuit in Maine to enforce a ballot initiative that limits personal contributions to Super PACs to $5,000. ^{6 7 8}

Background

EqualCitizens.US is the 501(c)(4) advocacy branch of the Equal Citizens Foundation. ⁹ It advocates for left-of-center election policy and for restricting donations to political campaigns. ³ The Equal Citizens Foundation advocates for policy that weakens voter integrity, limits contributions to political campaigns, and undermines the Electoral College’s role in U.S. elections. ¹

EqualCitizens.US and the Equal Citizens Foundation shares the same website and the donations made through their website states that it all goes to the Equal Citizens Foundation. ^{10 1} Both organizations share board members, although Equal Citizens Foundation has more members, and between 2017 and 2019, the only grants EqualCitizens.US had were given to the Equal Citizens Foundation. ^{11 12 13}

Activities

Campaigns

EqualCitizens.US has a “Bust the Filibuster” campaign, advocating to eliminate the filibuster for Democratic-backed election administration legislation. ¹⁴ EqualCitizens.US has argued that the filibuster needs to be eliminated because left-of-center legislation has failed to pass due to it. Additionally, it states that other methods to eliminate the effects of the filibuster should be entertained, such as lowering the vote threshold for “cloture” to break a filibuster. ⁵

According to its website, EqualCitizens.US lists the stances of 50 U.S. Senators regarding ending the filibuster. As of June 2026, the list contains 37 Senators in favor of what the group calls “filibuster reform,” 12 who are “open to filibuster reform,” and one Senator “against filibuster reform.” ¹⁵

EqualCitizens.US campaigned in support of the For the People Act, including an article series titled “Dispatches on the For the People Act.” The series supported instituting same day voter registration, eliminating voter ID requirements, and expanding mail-in voting, highlighting how it would weaken voter integrity and change campaign finance laws. ¹⁶

EqualCitizens.US has supported the Freedom to Vote Act, which would automatically register citizens to vote through state agencies, mandate that all states offer same-day voter registration, permit online voter registration, guarantee at least 15 days of early voting, establish national standards for mail-in voting, and establish Election Day as a federal holiday. As of June 2026, Equal Citizens claims that the Freedom to Vote Act is “wildly popular” but will not pass the U.S. Senate due to Republican opposition that it can only be overcome by eliminating the filibuster. ¹⁵

EqualCitizens.US has a ‘’Fix the College” project that advocates for policy that protects Presidential Electors from state governments imposing punishments for voting against the candidates to which they are pledged. ¹⁷ EqualCitizens.US president Lawrence Lessig has argued that electors are political agents controlled by the state legislature and that ideas for reforming the electoral college are needed. ¹⁸

EqualCitizens.US also oversees the “Citizens Create Project,” where each month the project shares a prompt “on the topic of money and politics” while participants create short videos on these prompts, and the best ones are chosen by EqualCitizens.US to be shown on its platform. Donations to videos are then split between the creators and campaign finance reform advocacy efforts. ¹⁹

Litigation

During the November 2024 election, voters in the state of Maine approved Maine Question 1, which would limit personal contributions towards Super PACs to $5,000 per person. Following the approval, Super PACs Dinner Table Action and For Our Future PAC filed a lawsuit against the Maine Commission on Governmental Ethics and Election Practices and the Maine Attorney General, claiming the initiative violated the First and Fourteenth Amendments. In July 2025, a judge ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, and the ruling was appealed. As of June 2026, the case Dinner Table Action v. Schneider is before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. ^{6 20}

Several left-of-center nonprofit groups have intervened in the case to support the defendants and uphold the initiative, including EqualCitizens.US. and the Brennan Center for Justice. EualCitizens.US claimed that Super PACs promote corruption in the electoral process, are not “required” by the U.S. Constitution, and that the lawsuit “could end Super PACs forever.” ^{6 20}

In June 2022, EqualCitizens.US and Free Speech for People filed a ballot petition in Massachusetts to put limits on Super PAC contributions. After the Massachusetts Attorney General rejected the petition on the grounds the measure was unconstitutional, EqualCitizens.US and Free Speech for People filed a lawsuit against the Massachusetts Attorney General. In May 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the case. ⁷

In February 2018, the group filed a lawsuit against the Alaska Public Offices Commission, claiming that states could ban Super PACs on the grounds that they facilitate corruption. ²¹ In November 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the case’s appeal, ending the lawsuit in the state’s favor. ⁸

Leadership

Lawrence “Larry” Lessig is the founder and president of EqualCitizens.US. Lessig is a political activist, Harvard professor, and lawyer. In 2016, he attempted to gain the Democratic nomination for President of the United States with a platform of restricting campaign speech. ²

As of June 2026, Maia Cook has worked as the executive director since July 2025. She previously worked as the organization’s deputy executive director and a fellow, dating back to May 2024. From 2023 to 2025, Cook worked as Lessig’s research assistant at Harvard Law School. Earlier, Cook worked as an intern at OpenSecrets and as a student fellow at American Progress. ²²

As of June 2026, the board of EqualCitizens.US consisted of Lessig, Democratic pollster and Lake Research Partners president Celinda Lake, and University of Minnesota law professor Richard Painter. ²³

Finances

EqualCitizens.US reported revenues of $472,236 in 2017, $137,193 in 2018, and $22,037 in 2019. ²⁴ From 2017 through 2019, EqualCitizens.US only reported making contributions in 2018, in the amount of $202,905. ¹³