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Trump's New Executive Orders To Restrain the Administrative State

October 10, 2019
In the News
President Donald Trump just announced two executive orders to rein in unlawful administrative state action.  The first order declares that its goal is “to ensure that Americans are subject to only those binding rules imposed through duly enacted statutes or through regulations lawfully promulgated under them, and that Americans have fair notice of their obligations.” …
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President Trump Rightfully Orders Agencies to be Transparent and Fair; USDA Should be the First to Comply

October 9, 2019
Despite the fact that the Constitution and Administrative Procedure Act prohibit the practice, federal agencies often engage in the commonplace tactic of issuing informal interpretations, factsheets, and other forms of “guidance,” to force compliance with a slew of “policy positions” that are not supposed to be legally binding. The agencies, in other words, use purportedly…
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The Wholesale Nullification of FOIA

October 2, 2019
Adi Dynar
           The Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA, is one of the most important legal tools Americans have for ensuring the federal government is transparent. Given the mammoth size of the federal bureaucracy, FOIA helps inform Americans of “what their government is up to,” in the words of Henry Steele Commager…
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Ignoring Reality and the Law of Unintended Consequences

September 25, 2019
Harriet Hageman
  The United States Forest Service (“USFS”) dropped the “Roadless Rule” (66 Fed.Reg. 3244) on the public in the last ten days of the Clinton administration, the outcome of which was to essentially deny access to and management of 58.5 million acres of National Forest lands throughout the Country.  That Rule covered a full 30%…
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The Most Hated Supreme Court Case of its Time – Now Showing on Amazon and at NCLA

By: Margaret A. Little September 13, 2019
Peggy Little
New Civil Liberties Alliance recently hosted a showing of Little Pink House, a 2017 fact-based film dramatization of the events leading to the Supreme Court’s 5-4 decision in Kelo v. New London.  When that case was handed down in 2005, immediate, nationwide outrage rocketed it to the dubious distinction of being the most hated Supreme…
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The SEC’s Made-up Power to Punish

September 4, 2019
Caleb Kruckenberg
             At some point in every lawyer’s career, they become familiar with, what I call, “hallway law.” This is the set of rules that everyone seems to think apply, but don’t actually have any basis in the law. Hallway law exists merely from inertia, but it can be very difficult…
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Joe Martyak
Vice President of Communications and Marketing
Trevor Schakohl
Media Manager