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Labor Regulation Flouts the Fair Labor Standards Act and Requires Supervisor Making $200,000 to Be Paid Overtime
In the News
Did you know you can make over $200,000 a year and still be entitled to overtime pay? In Helix Energy Solutions Group, Inc. v. Hewitt, the en banc Fifth Circuit recently concluded as such. This surprising result was made possible by a Department of Labor regulation that requires some hourly employees to be paid…
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Brave Citizens vs. SEC Overreach
In the News
Because our elected branches of government can’t always be trusted to zealously keep one another in check, litigation by individual private citizens has long been among the most effective ways to enforce separation of powers and other structural constitutional boundaries. At least four recent cases involving the Securities and Exchange Commission underscore the power…
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Undercover Threat: The Intersection of the Administrative State and the First Amendment
In the News
Photo: The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission building Americans interact with the First Amendment every day, whether it be through watching the evening news, criticizing the government on Twitter, or attending weekly religious services. Integral to the American experience, most would tell you that the First Amendment protects rights to free speech, religion, and press. Yet,…
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When Your SEC Prosecutor Is Your Judge, Scandals Surely Follow

“Agencies that combine enforcement and adjudication—as many do—are unconstitutional. But convenient for the government,” law blogger Glenn Harlan Reynolds posted earlier this year. For those who follow SEC enforcement, particularly adjudication by in-house administrative law judges, two recent cases from the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit may change all that. Michelle Cochran, a…
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The Collision of Administrative Law and Civil Liberties
Blogs
A month ago, I was speaking with an associate at a DC law firm. I told him that I work at a non-profit, the “New Civil Liberties Alliance,” which represents parties in cases relating to administrative law. He appeared confused and asked how civil liberties are connected to administrative agencies. For those who have…
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‘Peekaboo Prosecution’ Turns 20

Imagine a dystopian world where Congress empowers a private corporation to secretly investigate and punish members of a particular profession — say, auditors. Think of a private version of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), but with evergreen funding that never requires an appropriation from Congress and with lavishly compensated personnel who are exempt from laws designed…
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