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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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SCOTUS Must Limit Unwarranted Searches to Preserve 4th Amendment Protections
Tahmineh Dehbozorgi
Photo: U.S. Marshals Service The Fourth Amendment protects Americans against unreasonable searches and seizures by the government. Absent exigent circumstances or consent, police must obtain judicial authorization (a warrant) to enter a home. As the Supreme Court has repeatedly stated, for example in Riley v. California, the sanctity of a person’s home is among an…
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What Originalism Must Take From the Common Good
In the News
I. Introduction On May 29th, 1919, British researchers operating out of Principe and Sobral, Brazil, tested a simple proposition: whether, during that day’s total eclipse, the light of stars proximate to the sun would be deflected, thus distorting their observed position in the night sky. The proposition was proven correct, and, in November of 1919,…
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