September 2024

Your support for NCLA is vital in our ongoing fight for liberty! In September, we urged the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana to keep Missouri v. Biden alive and pursue further discovery in the fight against government-led social media censorship. We also filed an Amended Complaint in Dressen v. Flaherty, challenging federal collusion with social media companies to censor support groups for those injured by Covid vaccines. In the Southern District of Texas, we’re seeking a ruling to declare this censorship illegal and protect First Amendment rights. Additionally, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York denied Cornell’s attempt to avoid trial in our client Dr. Mukund Vengalattore’s Title IX case, where we aim to clear his name after a biased investigation derailed his career.

In addition to these victories, NCLA continues to push forward on multiple fronts. A report by a Harvard-trained neurosurgeon confirms Judge Pauline Newman is mentally fit to serve, and NCLA urges an end to this legally and factually flawed investigation. After toppling Chevron deference, we’re now urging the D.C. Circuit to strike down NOAA’s at-sea monitor rule. In the Third Circuit, we’re challenging an unlawful DOT penalty post-Jarkesy. We’ve also asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hear Martinez v. Channon High, advocating for the abolition of the flawed qualified immunity doctrine that shields officials from accountability unless a violation is “clearly established.”

Thank you for being an essential part of the New Civil Liberties Alliance. Your support empowers us to keep winning these critical battles. Read on to learn more about these cases and other updates from NCLA, and don’t forget to click the link below to help provide our attorneys with the resources they need to keep up the fight!

Cases to Watch

In Dr. Vengalattore’s case, Cornell changed or ignored multiple policies and procedures to placate Department of Education, ironically leading to the university’s violating Title IX rather than complying with it.

NCLA Secures Trial in Ex-Professor’s Case Against Cornell’s Title IX Kangaroo Court

The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York denied Cornell University’s effort to avoid a trial in New Civil Liberties Alliance client Dr. Mukund Vengalattore’s lawsuit alleging that Cornell’s biased and faulty sexual misconduct investigation discriminated against him in violation of Title IX. Dr. Vengalattore was a tenure-track Cornell University physics professor in 2014 when a former graduate student sought to interfere with his tenure and made a false sexual misconduct allegation. Her claim launched an utterly biased and due-process deficient Title IX investigation that ruined his promising career. Cornell’s scheme was driven in part by the university’s Title IX office, which succumbed to pressure from the Department of Education to rig its investigatory and adjudicatory processes against men accused of sexual misconduct. While the Court dismissed Dr. Vengalattore’s claim that Cornell defamed him, it rejected the university’s motion for summary judgement in the lawsuit. NCLA looks forward to arguing Dr. Vengalattore’s Title IX claim before a jury and clearing his good name. Read more >>>

The First Amendment forbids Defendants from suppressing the speech and association rights of innocent victims like these, who are seeking to commiserate with other sufferers and to share ideas for medical treatments.

NCLA Suit Demands End to Gov’t Censorship of Support Groups for Victims of Covid Vaccine Injuries

NCLA has filed an Amended Complaint in the Dressen, et al. v. Flaherty, et al. lawsuit against the federal government’s ongoing efforts to collude with social media companies to monitor and censor online support groups for those injured by Covid vaccines. This censorship campaign has combined the efforts of numerous federal agencies and government actors—including within the White House, as well as the Surgeon General’s Office and the CDC—to coerce, induce, and collude with social media platforms to censor, suppress, and label as “misinformation” speech expressed by those who have suffered vaccine-related injuries. That includes private speech in online chat groups. The Amended Complaint exposes how the illegal scheme has continued since this lawsuit began last year. NCLA urges the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas to enjoin this government-sponsored censorship and declare it unlawful state action to prevent these Defendants from further censoring such free speech and free association in violation of Plaintiffs’ First Amendment rights. Read more >>>

John Doe Corporation’s lawsuit seeks to stop the Board from enforcing an excessively intrusive and burdensome investigative “Accounting Board Demand” ostensibly authorized by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.

NCLA Asks Fifth Circuit to Return Erroneously Transferred Lawsuit Against PCAOB to Texas Court

NCLA petitioned the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals for a writ of mandamus to help return its anonymous client John Doe Corporation’s lawsuit against the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas. NCLA filed the suit in the Southern District of Texas challenging PCAOB for unlawfully exerting government power. But the Texas court transferred the case to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia without any notice to the parties and without giving NCLA’s client an opportunity to respond, as the law requires. The Fifth Circuit should order the Southern District of Texas to ask that the case return from the D.C. court. Read more >>>

As Missouri v. Biden continues, NCLA is determined to stop this unlawful assault on Americans’ free speech rights.

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

NCLA has filed a brief in response to an order of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana, urging the court not to dismiss Missouri v. Biden and requesting further discovery in this landmark lawsuit against government-induced social media censorship. In June, the Supreme Court vacated the preliminary injunction in the case (then called Murthy v. Missouri) that barred officials from the White House, CDC, FBI, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), and the Surgeon General’s office from encouraging social media platforms to censor constitutionally protected speech. NCLA’s clients have been blacklisted, shadow-banned, de-boosted, throttled, and suspended on social media as part of a censorship campaign orchestrated by the White House and others in a “whole of government” effort. Read more >>>

Dr. Filler conducted a targeted examination of Judge Newman’s recall, reasoning, logical processing, and executive function abilities.

“Judge Newman Fit to Judge,” Reports Harvard-Trained Neurosurgeon Expert

Dr. Aaron G. Filler, MD, PhD, JD confirms Judge Newman is fully fit to perform the duties of the office to which she has been confirmed by the Senate and appointed by the President. Dr. Filler is a world-renowned neurosurgeon and inventor, trained at the University of Chicago and Harvard University, with extensive expertise in brain injury, cognitive evaluation, and brain imaging. He conducted this objective study on an entirely pro bono basis. Read more >>>

The key issue now before the court is whether the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (MSA) actually authorizes the agency’s controversial amendment.

NCLA Pushes Court to Reel in Unlawful Fishery Monitoring Rule After Supreme Court Sinks Chevron Deference

NCLA has filed a Supplemental Brief urging the court to vacate the Industry-Funded Monitoring (IFM) Omnibus Amendment, issued by the New England Fishery Management Council (NEFMC) and applied to nearly all fisheries in the region. Implemented by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) February 2020 Final Rule, the Herring Rule is just the first of many industry-funded monitoring programs. To enforce the Amendment, NOAA must issue separate rules for each fishery. NCLA has consistently sought to vacate both the Rule and the Amendment. Read more >>>

Click here for more cases to watch

Friends of the Court

The government itself must pay, as it did for 20 years before the agencies invented the at-sea monitor rule.

NCLA Asks D.C. Circuit to Scrub NOAA’s at-Sea Monitor Rule After Toppling Chevron Deference

On behalf of its clients Relentless Inc., Huntress Inc. and SeaFreeze Fleet LLC, NCLA has filed an amicus curiae brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo. Alongside NCLA’s Relentless Inc. v. Dept. of Commerce lawsuit, this historic case defeated the Chevron doctrine. Now, on remand, NCLA urges the Court to overturn the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) rule requiring North Atlantic fishing companies like NCLA’s Relentless clients to pay the salaries of at-sea government monitors who track their herring catch. With Chevron deference rightfully erased, this statutorily unauthorized rule must meet the same fate. Read more >>>

The Supreme Court made clear in Jarkesy that Americans have a Seventh Amendment right to a jury trial.

NCLA Asks Third Circuit to Eliminate Unlawful DOT Penalty After Landmark Jarkesy Ruling

NCLA filed an amicus curiae brief in Axalta Coating Systems v. Department of Transportation asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit to vacate an illegal civil penalty order issued by an agency official in a juryless proceeding. The Supreme Court’s June decision in Securities and Exchange Commission v. George Jarkesy, a nearly identical case supported by NCLA amicus briefs, requires the Third Circuit to undo DOT’s illegitimate penalty against Axalta Coating Systems. Just like SEC in its onslaught against Mr. Jarkesy, DOT lacked constitutional authority to take this punishing action. Read more >>>

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit found police officer Channon High violated Desiree Martinez’s Fourteenth Amendment due process rights.

NCLA Asks Supreme Court to Repair (or Abolish) Fatally-Flawed Qualified Immunity Doctrine

NCLA has filed an amicus curiae brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to hear Desiree Martinez v. Channon High. NCLA urges the Justices to reexamine the modern qualified immunity doctrine and abolish the atextual, ahistorical standard for qualified immunity that requires violations of the law to be “clearly established” via prior court precedents before officials can be held to account. The Court must at least refine the perilously pro-government “clearly established law” standard and clarify that government officials with time to reflect and make calculated choices before acting should not receive the same protection as a police officer making a split-second decision to use force. Read more >>>

Click here for more amicus briefs to watch.

In the News

📰 Federal Circuit Extends Judge Newman’s Suspension Another Year, Bloomberg Law

📰 Judge Newman Fully Capable to Serve, New Physician Report Says, Bloomberg Law

📰 Court extends suspension of 97-year-old US federal judge, Reuters

📰 ‘Surreal’ venue fight erupts in constitutional challenge to accounting oversight board, Reuters

📰 Overturning Chevron Is a Major Victory, Philip Hamburger for Tom Klingenstein

📰 Will Lower Courts Preserve the Administrative State?, Garrett Snedeker for Tom Klingenstein

📰 Ex-Lender Says FDIC Can’t ‘Ignore’ Key High Court Precedents, Law 360

📰 Texas Says Justices’ Ruling Doesn’t Change Censorship Case, Law 360

📰 Vaccine-injured Americans fight to hold Biden-Harris admin accountable over censorship campaign, The Blaze

📰 Biden-Harris Title IX rewrite a nightmare for colleges after clarity of Trump rules, experts say, Just the News