February 2024

The New Civil Liberties Alliance is working tirelessly to uphold the fundamental rights and liberties enshrined in the U.S. Constitution. This month, the U.S. Supreme Court heard NCLA’s Garland v. Cargill case, which challenges the ATF’s effort to rewrite a federal statute that bans bump stocks—something ONLY Congress can do.

Read below to learn about this case as well as NCLA’s fight against government-directed censorship, the extraordinary Order in FTC v. PPO containing NO monetary penalties and only a three-year duty to report for our client, the SEC’s flawed illegal mass data collection regime, and how one of NCLA’s litigators defeated a government agency in less than a week!

Thank you for being a part of the New Civil Liberties Alliance and for your support. Keep scrolling to learn what is happening at NCLA and click the link below to donate!

The Latest

Michael Cargill, Jonathan Mitchell, and NCLA litigators outside the Supreme Court

Supreme Court Hears Oral Argument in NCLA’s Cargill Case Against ATF’s Unilateral Bump Stock Ban

Former Texas Solicitor General Jonathan Mitchell presented oral argument to the Supreme Court in NCLA’s Garland v. Cargill case, demonstrating that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ unilateral bump-stock ban conflicts with the federal statute defining “machineguns.” ATF’s regulatory ban, which the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit shot down 13-3 early last year, reversed the agency’s own long-standing recognition that bump-stock-equipped firearms are not illegal machine guns. NCLA’s client, Texas gun shop owner and Army veteran Michael Cargill, was in the courtroom for the argument. We anticipate a Supreme Court decision by July. We hope that the Court will confirm the Fifth Circuit’s ruling and prevent ATF from creating criminal law. Read more >>>

Our panel of expert appellate litigators discuss Garland v. Cargill

WATCH: Garland v. Cargill: Will SCOTUS Stop Agencies from Legislating?

In out latest Lunch and Law series, NCLA client Michael Cargill, Texas Solicitor General Jonathan Mitchell, and Richard Samp, discuss the historic Supreme Court case, Garland v. Cargill, just one day after presenting oral argument before the Supreme Court and whether the ATF had the power to enact legislation to ban bump stocks when Congress had considered such legislation and chosen not to do so. Watch here >>>

Cases to Watch

Outside the U.S. Department of Energy in Washington, D.C.

NCLA Wins Order Blocking Department of Energy’s Unlawful Demand for Cryptocurrency Mining Data

The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas granted a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) in the New Civil Liberties Alliance’s new Texas Blockchain Council v. Dept. of Energy lawsuit. NCLA filed a Complaint and TRO on behalf of the Texas Blockchain Council and Riot Platforms earlier this month. This 14-day TRO blocks DOE and the Energy Information Administration (EIA) from forcing cryptocurrency mining companies to hand over sensitive information about their electricity consumption through a mandatory Cryptocurrency Mining Facilities Survey. The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) had given EIA emergency permission to collect this data, despite EIA’s failure to demonstrate that short-cutting the statutory process would prevent public harm, as federal law requires. On behalf of its clients, the Texas Blockchain Council and Riot Platforms, Inc., NCLA celebrates the Court’s Order and looks forward to derailing DOE’s unlawful data collection effort once and for all. Read more >>>

If the government can’t pass a law blocking speech, then it can’t tell social media platforms what to censor or delete either

NCLA Asks Supreme Court to Uphold Injunction Against Government Social Media Censorship

NCLA has filed a brief for the respondents in the U.S. Supreme Court case of Murthy v. Missouri, urging the Justices to uphold a historic preliminary injunction granted by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. The injunction would bar officials from the White House, CDC, FBI, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), and Surgeon General’s office from coercing or significantly encouraging social media platforms to censor constitutionally protected speech. Representing individual plaintiffs Drs. Jayanta Bhattacharya, Martin Kulldorff, and Aaron Kheriaty, and Ms. Jill Hines, NCLA eagerly anticipates presenting oral arguments to the Supreme Court on March 18, joining the Attorneys General of Louisiana and Missouri in defense of Americans’ First Amendment rights. Read more >>>

Outside the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C.

NCLA Seeks Injunction to Halt U.S. State Department-Funded Censorship of Domestic Speech & Press

NCLA has filed a motion seeking a preliminary injunction from the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas to stop one of the most egregious violations of free speech and free press rights in history. The U.S. State Department has funded the development, testing, and marketing of censorship technology used to suppress First Amendment-protected speech by disfavored media outlets based on their viewpoints. NCLA proudly represents two of these outlets in The Daily Wire, The Federalist, State of Texas v. State Dept. and is urging the Court to block this blatantly unlawful censorship regime before it can further abridge Americans’ civil liberties. Read more >>>

The Hon. Pauline Newman in her Washington, D.C. office

NCLA Will Continue the Fight to End Unlawful Suspension of Federal Circuit Judge Pauline Newman

The Committee on Judicial Conduct & Disability denied NCLA’s petition on behalf of the Hon. Pauline Newman to review the Judicial Council of the Federal Circuit’s unlawful order suspending her from hearing new cases for at least a year. The Council’s suspension came on top of the months the Council had already suspended her during the investigation, which violated the Judicial Conduct and Disability Act that the Council purported to be applying. The Judicial Conduct & Disability Committee upheld Judge Newman’s suspension, a decision with which NCLA thoroughly disagrees. NCLA will continue challenging Judge Newman’s suspension and seeking her rightful restoration to the bench. Read more >>>

The Department of Transportation in Washington, D.C.

NCLA Asks Supreme Court to Equitably Toll Statutory Deadline to Thwart Agency Deceit

NCLA filed a petition for a writ of certiorari, urging the U.S. Supreme Court to hear Metal Conversion Techs. v. DOT and decide that courts can equitably toll statutory deadlines to forestall agencies from tricking their enforcement targets. Metal Conversion Technologies, LLC (Metal Conversion) is a family-owned company that the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) tried to punish via an unconstitutionally appointed agency adjudicator. Despite knowing that its hearing officer was improperly appointed, DOT allowed that official to issue a civil penalty against Metal Conversion for allegedly violating Hazardous Materials Regulations. DOT then failed to disclose the official’s improper appointment, preventing the company from seeking judicial review of the civil penalty on that basis within the normal statutory deadline. Read more >>>

Precision Patient Outcomes CEO Margrett Lewis

NCLA Secures Truce in Federal Trade Commission’s Unjust War Against Startup Company

NCLA has reached an agreement with the Federal Trade Commission terminating the agency’s lawsuit against our clients, Precision Patient Outcomes, Inc. (PPO), a California-based company that develops dietary supplements, and against its CEO, Margrett Lewis. The Order signed by the court in FTC v. PPO is extraordinary in containing no monetary penalties and only a three-year duty to report to FTC, a departure from FTC’s long practice insisting that such settlements must last decades. Read more >>>

Inside Nasdaq in New York City

En Banc Fifth Circuit Will Hear NCLA Lawsuit Against Legally Defective Nasdaq Board Diversity Rules

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has agreed to an en banc rehearing of the NCLA’s National Center for Public Policy Research v. SEC lawsuit challenging “Board Diversity Rules” that SEC promulgated without statutory authority. These rules impose race, gender, and sexual orientation quotas on corporate board membership for companies listed on the Nasdaq stock exchange, along with compelling corporate speech to explain any quota missed. SEC also furnishes lists of quota-satisfying names to companies unable to meet such quotas on their own. NCLA welcomes the opportunity to argue this case before the full Fifth Circuit, where we will urge the Court to set these unlawful rules aside. The Court also granted the petition for rehearing en banc filed in the case by the Alliance for Fair Board Recruitment. Read more >>>

Click here for more cases to watch

Friends of the Court

Michael Cargill outside the Supreme Court

Numerous Amici Join NCLA’s Ask for Supreme Court to Rule Against ATF’s Unilateral Bump Stock Ban

Ten U.S. Senators, ten law professors, and multiple civil liberties groups, policy research organizations and attorneys have filed 13 amicus curiae briefs supporting NCLA’s position in the Garland v. Cargill case that bump stocks are not machine guns. Representing Texas gun shop owner and Army veteran Michael Cargill, NCLA challenges the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ Bump Stock Final Rule and ATF’s expansion of the criminal scope of a statute by administrative fiat. The Final Rule reversed ATF’s long-standing recognition that bump-stock-equipped firearms are not illegal machine guns, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit rightly shot down the Rule early last year. Read more >>>

NCLA will present oral argument to the Supreme Court in Murthy v. Missouri on March 18

Amici Support NCLA’s Stance at Supreme Court in Major Social Media Censorship Injunction Case

Forty-five Members of Congress, 16 states, state legislators, former government officials, journalists, attorneys, media personalities, academics, activist groups and research organizations have filed 27 amicus curiae briefs supporting NCLA’s position in Murthy v. Missouri against government-directed censorship. NCLA is asking the Supreme Court to uphold a preliminary injunction granted by the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that bars officials from the White House, CDC, FBI, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, and Surgeon General’s office from significantly encouraging social media platforms to censor lawful speech. The Fifth Circuit upheld key components of a preliminary injunction order issued by U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty, who described the Administration’s scheme as “arguably the most massive attack against free speech in United States history” and “akin to an Orwellian Ministry of Truth.” Read more >>>

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit

NCLA Amicus Brief Calls on en Banc Fifth Circuit to Rein in CPSC’s Unaccountable Power Structure

NCLA has filed an amicus curiae brief asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit to rehear the case of Consumers’ Research v. CPSC en banc in order to decide whether CPSC’s structure is unconstitutional. CPSC Commissioners unquestionably wield executive power, yet the President cannot remove them at will. The en banc Fifth Circuit should end this glaring arrogation of the executive power that Article II of the Constitution vests solely in the President. Read more >>>

Outside the SEC building in Washington, D.C.

NCLA Amicus Brief Exposes Fatal Constitutional Flaws in SEC’s Illegal Mass Data Collection Regime

NCLA filed an amicus curiae brief in American Securities Association v. Securities and Exchange Commission, urging the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit to set aside an SEC order requiring financial industry broker-dealers to fund a “Consolidated Audit Trail” (CAT) that Congress never authorized. Unless the Court intervenes to stop it, these costs will be passed on to the investing American public as an unlegislated tax. Read more >>>

Starbucks is fighting NLRB’s unique and textually baseless preliminary injunction standard

NCLA Amicus Brief Asks U.S. Supreme Court to Reject NLRB-Specific Preliminary Injunction Standard

NCLA filed an amicus curiae brief at the Supreme Court in Starbucks Corp. v. McKinney, a case challenging a deferential legal standard that allows the National Labor Relations Board to enjoin a company’s conduct without showing that it likely broke the law. Instead, NLRB can initiate an administrative enforcement proceeding and then obtain a preliminary injunction in federal district court just by demonstrating that (1) its claims are not frivolous, and (2) those claims serve NLRB’s remedial purposes. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit upheld the injunction granted below due to prior circuit precedent. NCLA’s brief asks the Supreme Court to reject this textually baseless test, reverse the Sixth Circuit’s ruling, and require NLRB to satisfy the same injunction standard as every other litigant. Read more >>>

Click here for more amicus briefs to watch.

In the News

???? CARGILL v GARLAND: Michael Cargill Joins On His Bump Stock SCOTUS Case; ATF, The Dana Loesch Show

???? CPAC 2024 Day 1 Live Coverage, Right Side Broadcasting Network

???? Is There Any Remedy When You’re Censored?, WSJ Opinion

???? How to Defeat the Administrative State, National Review

????MARK CHENOWETH: Will SCOTUS Finally Send ATF’s Bump Stock Ban Back To Congress?, Daily Caller

????In Fight Over Bump Stock Ban, Lawyers Take Aim at Administrative State, The New York Times

????How gun accessories called bump stocks ended up before the U.S. Supreme Court, Associated Press

????Texas man takes ATF bump stock ban challenge to Supreme Court, Washington Examiner

???? Supreme Court grapples with whether to uphold ban on bump stocks for firearms, CBS

???? Supreme Court watchlist: Agency power, air rules, water rights, E&E News