The day after President Trump’s inauguration in 2017, the Women’s March drew millions of people to the streets of Washington, D.C., and cities across the country in a collective display of outrage and grief that was widely considered the largest single-day protest in American history.

As another presidential election nears and as the nation faces a deadly pandemic, historic racial justice protests and a contentious Supreme Court nomination process, the Women’s March organizers are hoping to, once again, channel grief and fear into action. But this time, they’re not waiting until January.

Last week, the Women’s March organization said it is planning a “socially distant march” in Washington and more than 30 other cities on Oct. 17, days before Senate Republicans aim to vote on Trump’s pick to replace Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Supreme Court. Trump has nominated Amy Coney Barrett, a circuit judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, whose writings have led conservatives and liberals to believe she would be willing to vote to overturn Roe v. Wade. She has also been critical of a 2012 Supreme Court decision that upheld the Affordable Care Act.

The goal, the Women’s March group says, is to “send an unmistakable message about the fierce opposition to Trump and his agenda, including his attempt to fill Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s seat.”

The organization plans to organize a rally in Freedom Plaza, followed by a march to the Supreme Court, and estimates that about 10,000 people will participate, according to an application for a permit submitted on Wednesday with the National Park Service. A permit has not yet been issued….

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image….Protesters fill the streets of Washington during the Women’s March after President Trump’s inauguration in 2017. (Oliver Contreras for The Washington Post)