When the Securities and Exchange Commission charged Volkswagen with fraud five years ago, the company emphatically disputed the charges as “legally and factually flawed” while assuring shareholders it would “vigorously” contest them. Fast forward to 2024. The SEC and Volkswagen jointly told the court last month that the company has agreed to pay $48 million to settle all charges. The…

The justices of the Supreme Court never focused on the First Amendment’s words when hearing arguments in Murthy v. Missouri last week. The case challenges the federal government’s orchestration of social media censorship, so one might have expected the justices to pay some attention to the First Amendment itself. Instead, the court relied on its own weak doctrines that invited the censorship in the…

Imagine you’ve just endured a nasty lawsuit where your adversary convinces the court you deserved to be punished. Before lodging your appeal, you’re sued in a different tribunal for even more punishment—and the judge assigned to decide that new case is your erstwhile adversary. Welcome to the dystopian world of Securities and Exchange Commission “follow-on”…

Next week, the Supreme Court will confront a government censorship operation that has no analog in American history. The justices are set to hear oral argument in Murthy v. Missouri, a First Amendment challenge to the Biden administration’s pandemic-era censorship enterprise. The New Civil Liberties Alliance, where I am litigation counsel, represents distinguished scientists whose speech…

It’s said that for every right there’s a remedy. Three cases before the Supreme Court will test whether that’s true for the freedom of speech. In National Rifle Association v. Vullo, a New York state official took aim at gun advocacy by threatening regulatory hassle for bankers and insurers that continued to do business with the NRA.…

The U.S. Supreme Court hears oral arguments this week regarding the federal ban on bump stocks, a disturbing sequence of events that culminated in a federal agency branding hundreds of thousands of Americans as criminals without congressional action. This is one regrettable Trump-era rule that the Biden administration continues to defend enthusiastically. Though Garland v. Cargill is…