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Davidson, Restivo, National Center for Public Policy Research v. Gensler

CASE SUMMARY

NCLA challenges the Securities and Exchange Commission’s unconstitutional “Consolidated Audit Trail” (CAT), the largest government-mandated mass collection of personal financial data in American history. SEC is forcing brokers, exchanges, clearing agencies and alternative trading systems to capture and send detailed information on every investor’s trades in U.S. markets to a centralized database, which the agency and private regulators can access forever.

Like thousands of other Americans, Erik Davidson, John Restivo, and the National Center for Public Policy Research naturally expected their government to respect their constitutional rights. Running roughshod over that sacred trust, SEC’s CAT system has seized their data, taking this property without due process of law in violation of Article I of the Constitution, the Fourth and Fifth Amendments, and the First Amendment freedom of association and expression. This ultra vires action also violates the Administrative Procedure Act. The CAT database would reportedly be the largest securities database ever created, and the most massive government database of any kind outside the NSA, putting every American’s financial data and security at grave and needless risk from cybersecurity breaches.

Congress never passed a statute giving SEC authority to set up such a data collection and surveillance system. In doing so on its own authority, SEC wields legislative power, clearly violating the clause in Article I of the Constitution vesting Congress with all lawmaking authority. SEC funds its CAT scheme by unilaterally taking billions of dollars from self-regulatory organizations like the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and other self-regulatory organizations (SROs). This self-appropriation of billions of dollars constitutes taxation without representation and brazenly ignores the Constitution and statutes that reserve tax and appropriations powers for Congress alone. Agencies have no power to fund legally unauthorized programs by raising the billions from self-regulatory organizations under their regulatory thumb.

OUR TEAM

Margaret A. Little
Senior Litigation Counsel
Andrew Morris
Senior Litigation Counsel
Margot Cleveland
Of Counsel

RELEVANT MATERIALS

NCLA FILINGS

Order Denying Preliminary Injunction

October 24, 2024 | Read More

Brief of Competitive Enterprise Institute as Amicus Curiae in Support of Plaintiffs’ Motion for Preliminary Injunction and Stay and in Opposition to Defendant’s Motion to Dismiss

August 22, 2024 | Read More

Brief of Advancing American Freedom, Inc.; AFA Action; AMAC Action; American Association of Senior Citizens; American Constitutional Rights Union; American Encore; American Family Association; American Values; Americans for Limited Government; Shawnna Bolick, Arizona State Senator, District 2; Capability Consulting; Center for Independent Thought; Center for Political Renewal; Center for Urban Renewal and Education (Cure); Eagle Forum; Joann Fleming, Executive Director, Grassroots America - We the People PAC; Frontline Policy Council; Representative Steven E. Galloway, District 24, Montana House of Representatives; Charlie Gerow; Allen J. Hebert, Chairman, American-Chinese Fellowship of Houston; International Conference of Evangelical Chaplain Endorsers; JCCWatch.org; Job Creators Network Foundation Legal Action Fund; Job Creators Network; Tim Jones, Fmr. Speaker, Missouri House; Chairman, Missouri Center-Right Coalition; Men and Women for a Representative Democracy in America, Inc.; National Religious Broadcasters; New Jersey Family Foundation; New Jersey Family Policy Center; North Carolina Institute for Constitutional Law; Orthodox Jewish Chamber of Commerce; Rio Grande Foundation; Pamela S. Roberts, Immediate Past President- Kentucky Federation of Republican Women; Setting Things Right; 60 Plus Association; Stand for Georgia Values Action; Strategic Coalitions & Initiatives, LLC; Students for Life of America; Tea Party Express; Tea Party Patriots Action; The Justice Foundation; Tradition, Family, Property, Inc.; J. Michael Waller; Women for Democracy in America, Inc.; Wisconsin Family Action, Inc.; Yankee Institute; Young America’s Foundation; Young Conservatives of Texas as Amici Curiae in Support of Plaintiffs

August 22, 2024 | Read More

Brief of the Cato Institute and Investor Choice Advocates Network in Support of Plaintiffs’ Preliminary Injunction Motion and in Opposition to Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss

August 22, 2024 | Read More

Brief of Amici Curiae Blockchain Association and DeFi Education Fund

August 22, 2024 | Read More

SEE 13 FILINGS
PRESS RELEASES

Powerful Amici Briefs Endorse NCLA Suit Against SEC’s Unauthorized and Illegal Mass Data Dragnet

August 26, 2024 | Read More

NCLA Asks Court to Uphold Suit, Stop SEC’s Unauthorized and Unlawful Mass Data Dragnet

August 16, 2024 | Read More

NCLA Asks Court to Halt SEC’s Unauthorized and Unlawful Mass Data Collection Regime

May 28, 2024 | Read More

NCLA Unleashes Lawsuit to Take Down SEC’s Illegal Mass Data Collection Machine

April 16, 2024 | Read More

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