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This campaign exposes the most outrageous assaults on civil liberties and the people and institutions behind them. Too often, these abuses are done by unelected, unaccountable officials who sidestep due process and escape media outrage. Not anymore. With your votes, The…
PROBLEM
The Administrative State
v. Civil Liberties
For over a century, unlawful administrative power has gradually displaced the Constitution’s avenues for lawmaking and justice. Although we still enjoy the shell of our Republic, there has developed within it a very different sort of government—a type, in fact, that the Constitution was designed to prevent. The unconstitutional Administrative State is the focus of NCLA’s concern.
OUR SOLUTION
Let judges judge.
Let legislators legislate.
Stop bureaucrats from doing either.
It’s time for a broad reestablishment of basic constitutional freedoms. NCLA files original lawsuits and amicus curiae briefs asking judges in state and federal courts to set aside unlawful actions by federal agencies that violate people’s civil liberties.
Our Focus Areas
Judicial Deference
Due Process of Law
The due process of law guarantees a right to be held to account only through the processes of an impartial court—something administrative tribunals violate every day.
Scope of Authority/ Nondelegation
The structure of the Constitution allows only Congress to legislate, only the Executive to enforce laws, and only the Judiciary to decide cases. But the Administrative State evades the Constitution’s avenues of governance when executive agencies issue regulations without statutory authorization from Congress.
Free Speech
The Administrative State tries to squelch speech, especially through licensing, speech bans, and speech mandates. Licensing requires one to get the government’s permission prior to speaking. Nothing was more clearly forbidden by the First Amendment than prior restraints on speech, but such controls are now commonplace.
Unreasonable Searches
The Fourth Amendment forbids warrantless searches and seizures of information, yet the Administrative State violates this right to privacy through administrative subpoenas and warrants, automated information collection devices, civil investigative demands, and “voluntary” requests for information.
Guidance Abuse
Agency guidance is easier to promulgate than formal rules and regulations, so agencies prefer to issue it. Such “guidance” supplies relatively informal indications of how an agency interprets rules and statutes. Although guidance is not permitted to bind Americans (unlike laws made by elected legislators), agencies treat guidance as binding and courts often fail to stop them.
Conditions on Spending
Administrative agencies use unconstitutional conditions on spending to regulate the conduct of grantees. Rather than rule through law, the government simply purchases submission.
Our Impact in Just 5 Years
Pro Bono Legal Assistance
795,000
HOURS LOGGED PER YEAR
BY EXPERIENCED ATTORNEYS
Philanthropy at Work
1M
REACHED BY HIGH-IMPACT
MEDIA ADVOCACY
Making a Difference
1,000+
HELPED BY
HIGH-IMPACT LITIGATION
Our Clients
Meet the bravest people we know: our clients.
NCLA Case Video
Michelle Cochran v. U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
NCLA Case Video
Michael Cargill, v. Garland, et al.
