US civic health rating downgraded after year of 'restrictive' Trump actions
Source: The Guardian
Tue 9 Dec 2025 00.01 EST
Last modified on Tue 9 Dec 2025 00.02 EST
A coalition of global civil society organizations has downgraded the United States’ civic health rating from “narrowed” to “obstructed.” In a report released on Tuesday, Civicus, a non-profit that monitors civic freedoms in 198 countries, placed the US in its “obstructed” category. The group cited a “sharp deterioration of fundamental freedoms in the country … following a year of sweeping executive actions, restrictive laws and aggressive crackdowns on free speech and dissent.”
The shift comes just months after Civicus’s July assessment, which rated the US as “narrowed” – one step above “obstructed”. Civicus assigns each country a score based on civic space conditions, using five classifications: “open”, “narrowed”, “obstructed”, “repressed” and “closed”.
According to the group, an “obstructed” ranking applies to countries where civic space is heavily contested. Civil society organizations still exist but state authorities undermine them including through illegal surveillance, bureaucratic harassment and demeaning public statements. “Citizens can organise and assemble peacefully but they are vulnerable to frequent use of excessive force by law enforcement agencies, including rubber bullets, tear gas and baton charges,” the rating description said.
It added in regards to media: “There is some space for non-state media and editorial independence, but journalists face the risk of physical attack and criminal defamation charges, which encourage self-censorship.” The report cited militarized crackdowns on protests in the US, pointing to Donald Trump’s deployment of the national guard to Los Angeles and other cities, as well as the widespread use of ICE agents across gatherings and immigrant communities.
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/dec/09/us-civic-health-rating-trump
Link to Civicus MONITOR page - https://monitor.civicus.org/globalfindings_2025/
Link to Civicus REPORT - https://monitor.civicus.org/globalfindings_2025/americas/
REFERENCES
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143414501
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143504209
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