Marc Elias Named 'Human Rights Hero' by American Bar Association Civil Rights and Social Justice Section
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Elias Law Group Firm Chair Marc Elias has been selected as a Human Rights Hero by the American Bar Association Civil Rights and Social Justice Section in the latest issue of Human Rights, the Section’s quarterly magazine featuring the latest expert ideas, opinions, and discourse in human and civil rights.
The recognition will be featured in the magazine’s October 2025 issue, titled "State, Local, Tribal and Territorial Advocacy: Filling the Federal Void.”
The Civil Rights and Social Justice Section announced its selection of Elias as a Human Rights Hero with a tribute authored by Bobbi M. Bittker, Chair of the Section’s Committee on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity. Bittker highlights Elias's work to defeat dozens of lawsuits filed by Trump and his allies seeking to overturn the 2020 election, and his ongoing efforts to challenge voter suppression tactics at the state and local level.
“Marc Elias may not be a household name to anyone other than policy wonks and campaign buffs, but if you care about the survival of our democracy, you should familiarize yourself with his work,” Bittker wrote in the tribute.
“I am honored to receive this recognition from the American Bar Association’s Civil Rights and Social Justice Section,” said Elias Law Group Firm Chair Marc Elias. “The legal profession has a responsibility to protect democracy and the rule of law from authoritarian attacks, and I am proud of the entire team at Elias Law Group for their commitment to that important mission.”
The latest issue of Human Rights is available here, and the full text of the article is available below:
Marc Elias: Voting Rights Litigator Extraordinaire and Founder of Democracy Docket
Marc Elias may not be a household name to anyone other than policy wonks and campaign buffs, but if you care about the survival of our democracy, you should familiarize yourself with his work. Elias, an expert in campaign finance, voting rights, and election law and litigation, has been a hot commodity for more than a decade as challenges to our democracy have escalated.
As a litigator, he handled hundreds of cases involving politics, voting rights, and redistricting and has successfully argued and won four cases in the U.S. Supreme Court. But his greatest impact has arguably been the many state and local challenges to a barrage of attacks on American voting rights. Elias successfully defended victorious candidates against lawsuits seeking to invalidate their election results, prevented large numbers of provisional ballots from being challenged, and secured the continuation of absentee ballot recounts. His efforts also prevented voter intimidation at polling locations on Election Day, ensured the certification of voter results despite insubordinate Board of Elections leadership, and even won a voter registration deadline request following a hurricane.
In 2020, Elias founded Democracy Docket, the leading digital news platform dedicated to information, analysis, and opinion about voting rights and elections in the courts. Democracy Docket hosts a database of more than 1,000 cases, tracks and reports on the most current election and voting-related litigation, and provides filings, in-depth analysis, and developments about court proceedings. Not only does this unique platform help the public understand the challenges to voting rights today, but it also provides an organized record that inoculates against the rampant scourge of disinformation. Democracy Docket aggregates and organizes the constant stream of cases being litigated nationwide to keep President Donald Trump accountable to the people, prevent felony disenfranchisement, protect voting rights, and address many other related issues.
Marc Elias has been described as a man saving democracy one legal victory at a time. He supervised dozens of lawsuits filed by the Trump campaign seeking to overturn President Joe Biden's win and prevailed in all but one. Elias is known for filing suits within hours of questionable new laws being signed. Search "victories" on the Democracy Docket database, and it boasts almost 450 cases spanning 43 states and the District of Columbia; of the seven states where no victories are documented, six are awaiting decisions or had no relevant filings.
Democracydocket.com is a priceless resource for the legal details of the actual trials and tribulations that are being fought daily, across the country in state and local courtrooms, to hold our democracy together. This repository was not likely imagined as a resource when Thomas Jefferson charged that an educated citizenry is a vital requisite for our survival as a free people. Nevertheless, these hard-fought cases tell the story of our survival as a democracy, one state, local, Tribal, and territorial victory at a time.
In 2022, Elias wrote, "While the headlines focus on how courts handle the most sensational attacks on our democracy from the trials related to the Jan. 6 insurrection to the latest subpoena struggles with former President Donald Trump and his allies, it is the daily work of state and federal courts to ensure voting rights are protected one case at a time." Democracy Docket founder and state, local, and federal litigator Marc Elias is a human rights hero.
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