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To Mandate or Not to Mandate: History Will Not Judge Us Kindly
MSU’s stated goal for adopting its vaccine mandate is to keep people safe from COVID-19. The focus, therefore, should be on immunity, not on the idea of vaccinating for the sake of vaccinating. If the intent is to minimize the incidence and severity of a particular disease, the government should concentrate on outcome, not conformance.
Mutually Assured Liberty: Generational Reciprocity and the Constitution
In my July 9, 2021 blog post, I examined the nexus between the Declaration of Independence, which pronounced the liberty-to-all principle that chartered the American nation, and the Constitution, which is the vehicle through which the Framers chose to achieve...
Back to the Future: Justice Jackson’s Prescient Dissent in Chenery II
I give up. Now I realize fully what Mark Twain meant when he said, “The more you explain it, the more I don’t understand it.” Justice Robert H. Jackson, dissenting in Chenery Corp. v. SEC, 332 U.S. 194, 214 (1947) Justice Robert H. Jackson has long been...
Let’s Not Celebrate Constitution Day
Second only to the niceties of how a bill becomes a law, the three branches of government and the manner in which their separate functions safeguard liberty are seared into the mind of every American, due to their halcyon days in civics class watching “Schoolhouse Rock.” Unfortunately, many of our leaders have forgotten these basic, yet indispensable principles.
When Government Gags, Public Loses
Second only to the niceties of how a bill becomes a law, the three branches of government and the manner in which their separate functions safeguard liberty are seared into the mind of every American, due to their halcyon days in civics class watching “Schoolhouse Rock.” Unfortunately, many of our leaders have forgotten these basic, yet indispensable principles.
Supreme Court Hints Eviction Moratorium Was Compensable Takings
Second only to the niceties of how a bill becomes a law, the three branches of government and the manner in which their separate functions safeguard liberty are seared into the mind of every American, due to their halcyon days in civics class watching “Schoolhouse Rock.” Unfortunately, many of our leaders have forgotten these basic, yet indispensable principles.
Administrative Surveillance Violates the Fourth Amendment
Second only to the niceties of how a bill becomes a law, the three branches of government and the manner in which their separate functions safeguard liberty are seared into the mind of every American, due to their halcyon days in civics class watching “Schoolhouse Rock.” Unfortunately, many of our leaders have forgotten these basic, yet indispensable principles.
The Securities and Exchange Commission Fails on 13 of 14 Counts Against NCLA Clients
Photo: NCLA client Micah Eldred, SEC v. Spartan Securities After a near decade-long Ahab-like pursuit alleging NCLA clients Spartan Securities Group, Island Stock Transfer, principals Carl Dilley, Micah Eldred, and Dave Lopez were knowingly involved in a massive fraud...
Justice Kagan and Stare Decisis
Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan has staked out a position for herself as the Supreme Court’s foremost defender of stare decisis. That doctrine holds that today’s Court ought to stand by yesterday’s decisions. Respecting stare decisis sometimes means sticking...
The Eleventh Circuit Helped Cement the Judiciary’s COVID Legacy in NCLA’s Challenge to the CDC Eviction Moratorium
Last week, a panel for the Eleventh Circuit in Brown v. Secretary of HHS determined that the U.S. Center for Disease Control likely lacked any power to issue its nationwide eviction moratorium, but two of the three judges still refused to block CDC’s unlawful...
Deference Disregards Duty
Deference is ubiquitous in modern administrative law. Chevron, U.S.A., Inc. v. NRDC, Inc. is the most cited case in administrative law and one of the most cited Supreme Court cases in history, having been cited in more than 17,428 cases and 12,879 law review...
Giving Hope to All: Adorning and Preserving Lincoln’s Apple of Gold
The Constitution’s separation of powers and nondelegation doctrine aren’t important because they’re functions and products of the structure of constitutional government, ipse dixit. They are important because there’s an existential nexus between constitutional...
Administrative Law Judge, Jury and Executioner
Second only to the niceties of how a bill becomes a law, the three branches of government and the manner in which their separate functions safeguard liberty are seared into the mind of every American, due to their halcyon days in civics class watching “Schoolhouse Rock.” Unfortunately, many of our leaders have forgotten these basic, yet indispensable principles.
Suffer the Little Children to Pull Off their Handlers’ Constitutional Coup d’Etat
One of the more disturbing tactics of the plaintiffs’ bar when advancing novel theories in mass tort and climate litigation is to put children in the vanguard of their pleading and media storm. The all-too-successful ploy draws media and public sympathy for...
Good-bye, Morrison v. Olson
United States v. Arthrex, last week’s much-anticipated Supreme Court decision which concluded that the Patent and Trademark Appeal Board (PTAB) is unconstitutionally structured, is unlikely to have a major impact on PTAB operations. The Court “fixed” the...
It’s Time for Supreme Court to Restore Uniformity to How Courts Apply Sentencing Guidelines
If Marcus Broadway lived in Tennessee, across the state line from his home in Arkansas, his federal prison sentence would be half as long. The same goes for Zimmian Tabb, who was arrested on the wrong side of the George Washington Bridge in New York. Both men were...
NLRB Attempts to Censor Speech—Again
Elon Musk is well-acquainted with the Administrative State’s obsession with his tweets. The Tesla CEO, already the subject of various Securities and Exchange Commission proceedings based on prior tweets, has drawn the interest of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) for questioning the benefits of union membership on Twitter.
You Need a Court Order for That – IRS Seizes Private Financial Information of Cryptocurrency Holders
Cryptocurrency use has burst into the mainstream. Once perceived as complex and confusing, digital currency has quickly become a staple asset in many investors’ portfolios. Today, tens of millions of Americans own cryptocurrency as a means to diversify their...
Governor Cuomo’s Unconstitutional Vaccine Passport Program
At the end of March 2021, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that he was launching the nation’s only Vaccine Passport Program. In order to gain entry to venues that host large-scale events, including sports stadiums and concert halls, people must scan...
James Madison University’s Title IX Investigation Flouts Due Process Rights
Alyssa Reid began her professional career in the summer of 2012 when James Madison University (JMU) hired her as the Assistant Director of the “Individual Events Team” in the School of Communication. Reid was passionate about education and teaching. She felt...
Supreme Court Agrees with NCLA and Cuts Back the FTC’s Power Grab Through Section 13(b)
The Supreme Court in AMG Capital Management, LLC v. FTC vastly cut back the FTC’s ability to freeze and then seize its targets' assets to the tune of billions of dollars. NCLA filed an amicus brief on behalf of AMG and the Court largely adopted our view of the...
Lunch and Law: The Administrative State – Reagan, Trump, and Biden
In April we celebrate Earth Day. Appropriately, this month NCLA invited distinguished guest panelist William Perry Pendley, who served as Deputy Director of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) for Policy and Programs, to sit down with NCLA Senior Litigation...
The Problem with “Percolation”
In Federalist Number 78 Alexander Hamilton wrote about the importance of not only an independent judiciary, but one that had the courage to protect liberty. Judges, he said, have a “duty” “to declare all acts contrary to the manifest tenor of the Constitution...
Federal Securities Law Unconstitutionally Deprives Defendants of Jury-Trial Rights While Granting Those Rights to Itself
The Seventh Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guarantees the right to a jury trial in civil suits filed in federal court. Federal officials have never liked it when the target of a federal enforcement action insists on a jury trial; they apparently fear that...
CDC Does Not Have Power to Regulate Access to Courts and Its Order Needs to Be Struck Down
NCLA has filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of housing providers who have been frozen out of state court under penalty of criminal sanction by the Center of Disease Control’s unlawful order preventing access to courts to recover property when a tenant...