95% of all court decisions in the US are made at the state level, affecting issues from voting rights, to gender justice and abortion care to criminal justice, and more. These issues disproportionately impact BIPOC communities, particularly women, trans and non-binary people of color. With the Right’s successful take-over of SCOTUS, state courts have become our best and last line of defense against authoritarianism, yet our movements lack both the knowledge and the capacity to organize around state courts. Movement organizations need an infusion of resources and funding to build the capacity needed to contest for power in this arena. The goal of this session is to inform philanthropy about the critical need to fund educational and training efforts that support movements to proactively leverage the power of the courts as we work to protect and expand the critical rights we have fought for decades to win.