In a victory for property rights with nationwide implications, the Wyoming Supreme Court has ruled that county regulators cannot restrict people’s conduct based on nonbinding guidance documents. The court’s decision is a setback for public officials accustomed to using administrative regulations to impose their will. The case, Asphalt Specialties Co., Inc. v. Laramie County Planning Commission,…

Can a professor hold university officials personally accountable for violating his constitutional rights when they deliberated with lawyers before doing it? The New Civil Liberties Alliance posed the question to the Supreme Court in a petition seeking review of a 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that granted “qualified immunity” to University of North Texas officials.…

In a step backward for due process, the Biden Department of Labor has revoked a Trump‐​era policy meant to rein in the use of informal guidance documents to issue regulatory commands. Per Allen Smith at the Society for Human Resource Management, this raises the likelihood that the department will move to reshape the American workplace through a rapid “stream…

An attorney with the New Civil Liberties Alliance asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on Friday to lift an 18-year-old gag order that barred a former Xerox executive from speaking out about his long-ago prosecution by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, arguing that the enforcement was an unconstitutional prior restraint…

The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear, on March 1, 2021, whether administrative patent judges (APJs) of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) are “inferior” officers properly appointed under the Appointments Clause of the U.S. Constitution (U.S. Const., art. II, § 2, cl. 2), and, if…

CDC has now extended its one-sided eviction moratorium order until March 31st as a stop-gap solution to the eviction crisis sweeping the country. NCLA has filed a complaint against CDC’s order for leaving housing providers in the lurch and for prohibiting them from taking delinquent tenants to court. Litigation Attorney Caleb Kruckenberg joined “Morning News…