Press Releases

NCLA Seeks to Reinstate Professor Terminated for Refusing Gov. Walz’s Illegal Covid Vaccine Mandate

Washington, DC (April 10, 2025) – The New Civil Liberties Alliance has filed a Complaint challenging the unlawful firing of tenured Lake Superior College (LSC) ethics and philosophy Professor Russell Stewart. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and LSC forced Prof. Stewart, who had worked at the college for 30 years, to choose between losing his job or...

NCLA Sues to Stop Trump Admin. from Imposing Emergency Tariffs That Congress Never Authorized

Washington, DC (April 3, 2025) – Today, the New Civil Liberties Alliance filed the first Complaint challenging President Donald Trump’s unlawful attempt to require Americans to pay a heavy tariff on all products they import from China. President Trump imposed the tariff by invoking the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). However, this statute authorizes specific...

NCLA Asks D.C. Court to Order FOIA Disclosure of FBI Payments to Social Media Platforms

Washington, DC (April 2, 2025) – The New Civil Liberties Alliance filed a Complaint today urging the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to compel the Federal Bureau of Investigation to disclose records concerning payments it has reportedly made to social media companies, media organizations, and other non-government entities. NCLA submitted a Freedom of...

Multiple Amici Support Supreme Court Cert Petition on Privacy for Records Shared with Third Parties

Washington, DC (April 1, 2025) – Several states, X (formerly Twitter), researchers, and advocacy groups have filed eight amici curiae briefs urging the U.S. Supreme Court to hear Harper v. O’Donnell, the New Civil Liberties Alliance’s case seeking to reform the Fourth Amendment’s third-party doctrine. This doctrine denies Americans’ rights against government intrusion into their...

NCLA Asks Supreme Court to Stop FINRA’s Illegal ‘Private’ Enforcement Regime

Washington, DC (March 27, 2025) – The New Civil Liberties Alliance has filed an amicus curiae brief in Alpine Securities Corporation v. Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) asking the U.S. Supreme Court to enjoin FINRA’s illegal expedited enforcement proceeding against Alpine Securities Corporation. FINRA openly admits to being a private corporation, yet it investigates, fines, and...

NCLA Asks Sixth Circuit to Rein in FINRA’s Unlawful Prosecution Regime

Washington, DC (March 26, 2025) – The New Civil Liberties Alliance filed an opening brief today urging the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit to set aside an SEC administrative order that affirmed Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) sanctions unlawfully punishing our client Eric S. Smith. FINRA is a private organization whose employees are...

NCLA Asks Supreme Court to Revive Innocent Family’s Federal Suit over FBI’s Wrong-House Raid

Washington, DC (March 14, 2025) – The New Civil Liberties Alliance filed an amicus curiae brief today in Martin v. United States, urging the U.S. Supreme Court to restore an Atlanta family’s Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) suit against the government for a wrong-house raid on their home. In October 2017, Curtrina Martin and her family...

NCLA Asks D.C. Circuit to Stop Consumer Product Safety Comm.’s Illegal Infant Support Cushion Rule

Washington, DC (March 14, 2025) – The New Civil Liberties Alliance has asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to stay the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s mandatory Safety Standard for Infant Support Cushions (“the Rule”), which regulates Heroes Technology’s one-of-a-kind Snuggle Me Infant Lounger and some two thousand other products. CPSC promulgated the...

NCLA Asks en Banc Ninth Circuit to Allow Suit Against Vaccine Mandate that Did Not Stop the Spread

Washington, DC (March 11, 2025) – The New Civil Liberties Alliance filed an amicus curiae brief today urging the en banc U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to allow the Plaintiffs’ lawsuit in Health Freedom Defense Fund v. Carvalho to proceed. The Plaintiffs launched a lawsuit against the Los Angeles Unified School District’s Covid-19...

In NCLA Amicus Win, D.C. Circuit Recognizes President Trump’s Right to Fire Principal Officer

Washington, DC (March 6, 2025) – The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has stayed a district court’s permanent injunction, which would have allowed Hampton Dellinger to remain head of the U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC) despite President Donald Trump’s firing him. The D.C. Circuit’s decision means Mr. Dellinger is instead removed...

NCLA Amicus Brief Asks Fifth Circuit to Maintain Block Against Corporate Transparency Act

Washington, DC (March 3, 2025) – Today, the New Civil Liberties Alliance filed an amicus curiae brief in Texas Top Cop Shop v. Bondi, urging the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit to uphold a preliminary injunction against enforcement of the unconstitutional Corporate Transparency Act (CTA). The Treasury Department announced yesterday that it will...

NCLA’s 100th Case Challenges Agency’s Illegal Criminalization of BASE Jumping in National Parks

Washington, DC (February 24, 2025) – Today, the New Civil Liberties Alliance filed a Complaint challenging Congress’s unconstitutional delegation of criminal lawmaking power to the National Park Service (NPS), allowing the agency to decide what constitutes a criminal offense within the 85 million acres of public land it oversees. For decades, NPS has unconstitutionally wielded...

NCLA Asks Supreme Court to Hear Case on Privacy Rights for Records Shared with Third Parties

Washington, DC (February 21, 2025) – Today, the New Civil Liberties Alliance petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the Harper v. O’Donnell lawsuit and reform the “third-party” doctrine, which denies individuals Fourth Amendment protection against government intrusion into their records stored with third parties. The Internal Revenue Service unlawfully seized financial records of NCLA...

In NCLA Victory, Eighth Circuit Blocks Illegal Biden Admin Plot to Cancel Student Loan Debt

Washington, DC (February 19, 2025) – The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit has upheld and expanded the district court’s preliminary injunction in Missouri, et al. v. Trump (originally Missouri, et al. v. Biden) to stop the Biden Department of Education’s entire “SAVE” plan. The New Civil Liberties Alliance had long advocated for this...

NCLA Asks the Supreme Court to Affirm President’s Absolute Power to Fire Executive Branch Officials

Washington, DC (February 18, 2025) – Today, the New Civil Liberties Alliance filed an amicus curiae brief in Bessent v. Dellinger, urging the U.S. Supreme Court to vacate a district court’s temporary restraining order (TRO) requiring President Donald Trump to reinstate the fired former head of the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, Hampton Dellinger. The...

NCLA Asks the Supreme Court to Stop FCC’s Use of Legislative Power, Bolster Nondelegation Doctrine

Washington, DC (February 18, 2025) – The New Civil Liberties Alliance has filed an amicus curiae brief in Federal Communications Commission v. Consumers’ Research before the U.S. Supreme Court. NCLA asks the Justices to rule that Congress unconstitutionally empowered the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to set and then rewrite its own policies for the Universal...

In Hawaii, Ninth Circuit Hears Oral Argument in NCLA Case Against SEC’s Illegal Gag Rule

Honolulu (February 13, 2025) – Today, New Civil Liberties Alliance Senior Litigation Counsel Peggy Little presented oral argument in Powell, et al. v. Securities and Exchange Commission, urging a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit to vacate SEC’s refusal to amend its “Gag Rule.” In place for over five decades,...

NCLA Asks Fifth Circuit to Rule Against Limitless Texas Attorney General Searches of Business Records

Washington, DC (February 10, 2025) – Today, the New Civil Liberties Alliance filed an amicus curiae brief in Spirit AeroSystems v. Paxton, urging the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit to uphold a district court ruling that Texas’s “Right to Examine” statute is unconstitutional. This statute authorizes the Texas Attorney General to force...

NCLA Secures Favorable Resolution in Physics Professor’s Title IX Case Against Cornell University

Washington, DC (February 6, 2025) – New Civil Liberties Alliance client Dr. Mukund Vengalattore and his former employer, Cornell University, have agreed to a confidential resolution of his Title IX lawsuit. After NCLA litigated more than six years, including defeating summary judgment and successfully appealing to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit,...

NCLA Explains Federal Circuit May Not Lawfully Exclude Judge Newman from Hearing en Banc Case

Washington, DC (January 27, 2025) – The New Civil Liberties Alliance has filed an amicus curiae brief urging the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit to comply with the mandatory statute governing the en banc process. The Federal Circuit must either permit the unlawfully suspended Judge Pauline Newman to participate in consideration of...

NCLA Amicus Brief Asks Fifth Circuit to Uphold Jury-Trial Rights in FDIC Enforcement Cases

Washington, DC (January 23, 2025) – The New Civil Liberties Alliance has filed an amicus curiae brief in Burgess v. Whang, urging the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit to uphold a preliminary injunction stopping the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation’s (FDIC) unconstitutional administrative enforcement proceeding against Cornelius Campbell Burgess. FDIC is trying to...

Expert Amici Back NCLA Supreme Court Case Against “Petty-Offense Exception” to Jury-Trial Right

Washington, DC (January 17, 2025) – Criminal law academics, defense attorneys, and advocacy groups have filed five amici curiae briefs in support of the New Civil Liberties Alliance’s pending Lesh v. U.S. petition before the U.S. Supreme Court. NCLA’s lawsuit challenges an unjust precedent that denies jury trials for people charged with “petty offenses”—generally those...

NCLA Warns DC Court of Appeals Not to Adopt Proposed Rule that Would Restrict Lawyers’ Speech

Washington, DC (January 15, 2025) – The New Civil Liberties Alliance has submitted comments urging the District of Columbia Court of Appeals to reject a proposed amendment to Rule 8.4 of the District of Columbia Rules of Professional Conduct that would violate lawyers’ First Amendment rights. The proposed rule’s vague language would subject attorneys to discipline...

NCLA Amicus Brief Asks Supreme Court to Keep Unlawful Corporate Transparency Act Enjoined

Washington, DC (January 13, 2025) – Today, the New Civil Liberties Alliance filed an amicus curiae brief in Garland v. Texas Top Cop Shop, urging the U.S. Supreme Court to reject the government’s request to stay a preliminary injunction against enforcement of the unconstitutional Corporate Transparency Act (CTA). The government cannot be allowed to maintain the...

Federal Court Holds Back NCLA’s Effort to Inform Public of Major Misconduct at SEC

Washington, DC (January 9, 2025) – The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas has rejected the New Civil Liberties Alliance’s request to force the Securities and Exchange Commission to immediately release information concerning profound misconduct within that agency. SEC had refused to comply with NCLA’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for...

NCLA Defeats Illegal Investigation by Public Company Accounting Oversight Board

Washington, DC (January 7, 2025) – The New Civil Liberties Alliance has filed a stipulated dismissal without prejudice of its pseudonymous client John Doe Corporation’s federal lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas challenging the unconstitutional investigative processes of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB). The dismissal follows PCAOB’s...

In NCLA Victory Against Censorship, State Department Shutters Global Engagement Center

Washington, DC (January 2, 2025) – The U.S. Department of State has closed its Global Engagement Center (GEC), which it had used to finance the development and promotion of censorship technology and enterprises that then blacklisted domestic news organizations. The New Civil Liberties Alliance celebrates this encouraging step as we lead the ongoing The Daily...

NCLA Convinces Federal Court to Stop DOL’s Illegal Undermining of Wage and Overtime Exemption

Washington, DC (December 30, 2024) – Today, the New Civil Liberties Alliance persuaded the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas to grant summary judgment in Flint Avenue v. Department of Labor, vacating a DOL rule that exceeded the agency’s statutory authority. The rule had set a $58,656 minimum-salary requirement for determining whether...

NCLA Amicus Brief Asks Supreme Court to Read Judicial Review Statute Broadly, as Congress Wrote It

Washington, DC (December 23, 2024) – Today, the New Civil Liberties Alliance filed an amicus curiae brief at the U.S. Supreme Court in support of the Respondents in Food and Drug Administration v. R.J. Reynolds Vapor Company. NCLA’s brief urges the Justices to reject FDA’s effort to insulate itself from accountability. Even though the law allows...

After NCLA Pressure, Department of Education Scraps Some Illegal Student Debt Cancellation Plans

Washington, DC (December 20, 2024) – Today, as the New Civil Liberties Alliance requested, the U.S. Department of Education announced the withdrawal of proposed rules that would have combined to unconstitutionally cancel more than $250 billion of federal student loan debt owed to the Treasury. NCLA had submitted comments in May 2024 and again in December urging...

NCLA Amicus Brief Asks Fifth Circuit to Uphold Block on Unconstitutional Corporate Transparency Act

Washington, DC (December 18, 2024) – Today, the New Civil Liberties Alliance filed an amicus curiae brief in Texas Top Cop Shop v. Garland urging the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit to reject the government’s request to stay a preliminary injunction against enforcement of the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA). The government cannot be...

NCLA Asks D.C. Court to Block SEC’s Illegal “Rubber-Stamp” Enforcement Procedure

Washington, DC (December 18, 2024) – The New Civil Liberties Alliance has filed an Amended Complaint and asked the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia for a preliminary injunction to stop the Securities and Exchange Commission’s illegitimate “follow-on” enforcement proceeding against Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Lemelson. A Massachusetts federal jury in 2021 rejected nearly all...

WATCH: Government Censors Victims of Covid Vaccine Injuries. NCLA is Fighting Back.

Washington, DC (December 17, 2024) – The New Civil Liberties Alliance is leading the Dressen, et al. v. Flaherty lawsuit against the federal government and Stanford University’s efforts to pressure and collaborate with social media companies to monitor and censor people discussing Covid vaccines on social media—including online support groups for vaccine injury victims. A...

NCLA Asks Supreme Court to Hear Case to Overturn “Petty-Offense Exception” to Jury-Trial Right

Washington, DC (December 13, 2024) – Today, the New Civil Liberties Alliance and the Stanford Law School Supreme Court Litigation Clinic petitioned the Supreme Court to hear David Lesh v. United States. On behalf of Mr. Lesh, NCLA seeks to overturn the Court’s unjust precedent that directly contradicts the explicit language of the Constitution by denying...

Retired Judges’ Amicus Brief Supports Judge Newman in NCLA Suit Against Her Suspension

Washington, DC (December 13, 2024) – Six retired federal judges have filed an amicus curiae brief in Newman v. Moore supporting the unlawfully suspended Federal Circuit Judge Pauline Newman, who is represented by the New Civil Liberties Alliance. The Hon. Janice Rogers Brown (D.C. Circuit), Hon. Paul Michel (Federal Circuit), Hon. Randall Rader (Federal Circuit),...

NCLA Persuades en Banc Fifth Circuit to Vacate Legally Defective Nasdaq Board Diversity Rules

Washington, DC (December 11, 2024) – Today, the New Civil Liberties Alliance convinced the en banc U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in National Center for Public Policy Research v. Securities and Exchange Commission to vacate SEC’s approval of Nasdaq’s “Board Diversity Rules,” which the agency lacked statutory authority to do. These Rules imposed...

Second Circuit Revives NCLA’s Lawsuit Against Ethics Rule Muzzling Connecticut Attorneys’ Speech

Washington, DC (December 9, 2024) – Today, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit vacated the district court’s dismissal of Cerame v. Slack, an NCLA lawsuit challenging a Connecticut Rule of Professional Conduct that imposes a content- and viewpoint-based speech restriction. Rule 8.4(7) defines “professional misconduct” by a Connecticut attorney as including speech...

NCLA Asks D.C. Circuit to Rule Against Unlawful Suspension of Federal Circuit Judge Pauline Newman

Washington, DC (December 5, 2024) – Today, the New Civil Liberties Alliance filed an opening brief urging the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to reverse a district court judgment that upheld the ongoing illegal suspension of Federal Circuit Judge Pauline Newman. Without due process, the Judicial Council of the Federal Circuit indefinitely...

NCLA Amicus Brief Asks Fifth Circuit to Overturn Banking Administration Board’s Denial of Jury Trial

Washington, DC (December 3, 2024) – Today, the New Civil Liberties Alliance filed an amicus curiae brief in Moats v. National Credit Union Administration Board urging the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit to reverse an order depriving former Texas credit union CEO Jeffrey Moats of a jury trial. The National Credit Union...

NCLA Asks First Circuit to Overturn Decision Enabling Excessive SEC-Demanded Sanctions

Washington, DC (November 27, 2024) – Today, the New Civil Liberties Alliance filed our opening brief urging the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit to reverse a lower court’s denial of costs and attorney’s fees that Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Lemelson incurred in successfully defending himself against outrageously excessive sanctions demands by the Securities and...

NCLA Sues CPSC, Trumka, HHS, CDC, NIH for Illegal, Unfounded Attacks on Weighted Infant Sleep Products

Washington, DC (November 20, 2024) – The New Civil Liberties Alliance has filed a Complaint to stop the Consumer Product Safety Commission, Commissioner Richard Trumka, Jr., and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) from continuing unproven, unlawful attacks on weighted infant sleep products, including our client Dreamland Baby Co.’s products. The CPSC, Trumka,...

NCLA Asks Supreme Court to Rope in Horseracing Authority’s Unconstitutional Executive Power

Washington, DC (November 14, 2024) – Today, the New Civil Liberties Alliance filed an amicus curiae brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to hear Walmsley, et al. v. Federal Trade Commission, et al. and eliminate the private Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority’s unfettered regulatory enforcement power over the horseracing industry. Congress passed the Horseracing Integrity...

NCLA Challenges WA Dept. of Fish and Wildlife’s Illegal 24-Hour Surveillance of Crabbing Boats

Washington, DC (November 14, 2024) – The New Civil Liberties Alliance has filed a lawsuit against the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Electronic Monitoring Program using GPS technology to constantly track the location and movements of every state-licensed boat that fishes for Coastal Dungeness Crab, whether they are crabbing or not. The Department sustains...

NCLA Amicus Brief Asks Fifth Circuit to Overturn Currency Comptroller’s Violation of Jury Trial Rights

Washington, DC (November 12, 2024) – Today, the New Civil Liberties Alliance filed an amicus curiae brief urging the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit to hear Ortega & Rogers v. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). NCLA asks the Fifth Circuit to overturn an OCC decision punishing former Texas bank...

NCLA Wins Further Discovery in Historic Suit Against Government’s Censorship Industrial Complex

Washington, DC (November 8, 2024) – Today, the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana granted the New Civil Liberties Alliance’s request for further jurisdictional discovery in the landmark Missouri v. Biden lawsuit against government-induced social media censorship. In June, the Supreme Court vacated the preliminary injunction in the case (called Murthy v. Missouri...

NCLA Asks Second Circuit to Rule Against HHS’s Coercive Medicare Drug Price ‘Negotiation’ Program

Washington, DC (November 8, 2024) – Today, the New Civil Liberties Alliance filed an amicus curiae brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals v. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS). NCLA urges the Second Circuit to rule it is unlawful for HHS to hold a company’s business hostage until it...

After Supreme Court Win, NCLA Convinces District Court to Vacate ATF’s Unlawful Bump-Stock Ban

Washington, DC (November 4, 2024) – Today, the U.S. District for the Western District of Texas amended its final judgment for New Civil Liberties Alliance client Michael Cargill to vacate the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ unilateral Final Rule banning bump stocks. NCLA had persuaded the U.S. Supreme Court to rule in June...

NCLA Sues to Stop USDA’s Illegal, Unnecessary Rule Mandating Electronic Eartags for Cattle and Bison

Washington, DC (October 31, 2024) – The New Civil Liberties Alliance has filed a Complaint against the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and its Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service’s (APHIS) unlawful new rule requiring electronically readable (EID) eartags for certain cattle and bison transported across state lines, rather than long-used visual tags. Representing ranchers,...

NCLA Asks Court to Uphold Suit Against San Antonio’s Illegal Firing of Poet for Free Speech

Washington, DC (October 28, 2024) – The New Civil Liberties Alliance has filed a brief urging the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas not to dismiss NCLA client Nephtali De León’s claims against the City of San Antonio and official Krystal Jones for defamation and violating free speech rights. The City unjustly fired...

In NCLA Amicus Win, Fifth Circuit Vacates Order for Elon Musk to Delete X Post About Labor

Washington, DC (October 28, 2024) – The en banc U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has vacated a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) order requiring Tesla CEO Elon Musk to delete a post he issued using his personal X (formerly Twitter) account, ruling that the order violated the First Amendment. NLRB based its...

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