May 2024

The New Civil Liberties Alliance proudly continues its steadfast defense of your liberties! This month marked two significant triumphs against censorship: firstly, the government’s motion to dismiss NCLA’s lawsuit, The Daily Wire, The Federalist, Texas v. State Dept., was rejected. Secondly, in a notable NCLA amicus win, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the NRA, affirming its claims against Maria Vullo of the NY Dept. of Financial Services for encroaching upon free speech and association rights!

NCLA also took decisive action, urging the U.S. Department of Education to reconsider its recent proposal for student loan debt cancellation and petitioned the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas to halt the SEC’s illicit mass data collection initiative. Additionally, we formally notified the CPSC of our intention to pursue legal recourse against Commissioner Trumka’s unlawful efforts to obstruct the sales of weighted sleep sacks.

Thank you for being a part of the New Civil Liberties Alliance and for your support. Keep scrolling to learn about these cases and everything else happening at NCLA. Don’t forget to click the link below to provide our attorneys with the resources they need to keep winning!

The Latest

The King George III Prize is your chance to vote for the worst abusers of civil liberties.

FINAL VOTE: NCLA’s King George III Prize Is Calling Out the Worst Government Abusers of Civil Liberties

The Fourth Annual King George III Prize is coming to a close! Now is the time to determine the worst abuser in the Censorship Bracket and the most egregious in the Runaway Regulator Bracket. In the Censorship Championship, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas squares off against Secretary of State Antony Blinken, while in the Runaway Regulator Championship, Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona competes against EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan. It is time to expose these regulators’ constitutional misdeeds! Vote here >>>

Cases to Watch

The State Department’s censorship regime violates the First Amendment rights of The Daily Wire, The Federalist, numerous similar outlets, and their readers.

NCLA Defeats Motion to Dismiss, Wins Expedited Discovery in Suit Alleging State Dept. Censorship

The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas denied nearly all of the government’s motion to dismiss NCLA’s lawsuit, The Daily Wire, The Federalist, Texas v. State Dept., which alleges massive violations of free speech and press rights. The Court also granted NCLA’s request for expedited discovery and rejected the government’s request to transfer venue to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Read more >>>

A Trumka’s unlawful campaign against NCLA’s client convinced multiple retailers to stop selling the company’s products and has significantly impacted Dreamland’s ability to continue operations.

NCLA Plans to Sue CPSC over Comm’r Trumka’s Illegal Efforts to Stop Sales of Weighted Sleep Sacks

NCLA sent a formal letter notifying the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) of its intent to file suit against the agency for Commissioner Richard Trumka’s violating NCLA client Dreamland Baby Co.’s constitutional and statutory rights. Dreamland creates infant and toddler products. Commissioner Trumka issued disparaging statements to the general public and to retailers creating the false impression that the company’s wearable infant sleep sacks have caused infant deaths. NCLA’s letter warns CPSC and Trumka to preserve all documentation and internal and external communications related to Dreamland and demands that they stop this illegal attack on Dreamland. Read more >>>

The Department’s new proposal would cancel specific loans under the Federal Family Education Loan, Direct Loan, Perkins Loan, and Health Education Assistance Loan programs.

NCLA Tells Department of Education Its Newest Student Loan Debt Cancellation Plan Is Unlawful

NCLA submitted comments urging the U.S. Department of Education to abandon its latest proposed rule that would unconstitutionally cancel $147 billion of federal student loan debt owed to the Treasury by an estimated 27.6 million borrowers. The plan even proposes to bestow about $19 billion of that on about 750,000 student loan debtors whose average annual household income exceeds $300,000! Outrageously, that sum means American taxpayers would give more than $25,000 apiece to debtor households making over $300,000 per year. Congress has repeatedly declined to erase such debt, and the Department of Education lacks legal authority to do so unilaterally. NCLA calls for an end to this latest Biden Administration attempt at subverting the rule of law to erase student loan debt. Read more >>>

Congress never authorized the SEC to create the Consolidated Audit Trail, which flagrantly violates the constitutional rights of all investing Americans.

NCLA Asks Court to Halt SEC’s Unauthorized and Unlawful Mass Data Collection Regime

NCLA has filed a motion asking the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas for a stay and preliminary injunction in Davidson, Restivo, and NCPPR v. Gensler to halt the Securities and Exchange Commission’s “Consolidated Audit Trail.” The unconstitutional CAT is the largest government-mandated mass collection of personal financial data in American history. Without any statutory authorization from Congress, SEC is forcing brokers, exchanges, clearing agencies and alternative trading systems to capture and send detailed information on every investor’s trades in U.S. markets to a centralized database, which SEC and private regulators can access forever (but whose security they cannot ensure). The Court should order SEC to prevent the CAT from collecting or accessing any more data and prohibit the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) from requiring broker-dealers to send any more information to the CAT. Read more >>>

Click here for more cases to watch

Friends of the Court

NRA can continue to engage in First Amendment protected activity without fear of being dropped by insurance companies and banks due to coercive government pressure.

In NCLA Amicus Win, Supreme Court Revives NRA’s First Amendment Lawsuit Against NY Officials Brief Tells D.C. Circuit It Must Avoid Remanding Regulations While Not Vacating Them

The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled in NRA v. Vullo that the National Rifle Association plausibly accused New York Department of Financial Services Superintendent Maria Vullo of violating its rights to free speech and association. In so doing, it reversed a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, which had held Vullo’s alleged actions amounted to permissible government speech and enforcement of state law. Vullo issued statements effectively threatening to punish banks and insurers via regulatory action if they kept doing business with NRA, targeting the organization’s pro-Second Amendment viewpoint. The New Civil Liberties Alliance filed an amicus brief, urging the Justices to decide NRA’s complaint stated a claim upon which relief against Vullo’s unconstitutional conduct, if proven, could be granted. NCLA commends the Court for holding that the egregious allegations against Vullo do state a First Amendment claim. Read more >>>

The Second Circuit’s unanimous decision is not only an important vindication of the property rights of patent holders, but a much-needed corrective to the FTC.

In NCLA Amicus Win, and FTC Amicus Loss, Second Circuit Upholds Decision Dismissing Antitrust Suit

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit unanimously upheld a district court decision dismissing the In re Bystolic antitrust lawsuit over reverse payments. The New Civil Liberties Alliance encouraged this outcome in its amicus curiae brief supporting the Defendants, but the Federal Trade Commission filed an amicus brief for the Plaintiffs even though FTC itself had declined to file suit. NCLA argued that an antitrust plaintiff seeking to prove that a patent owner has made a prohibited “large and unjustified” payment to potential competitors must show it was a large net payment (the cash paid minus the value of services provided), not merely a large gross payment. The Second Circuit affirmed the district court’s dismissal, deciding Plaintiffs failed to state a claim on which relief could be granted. NCLA celebrates this correct antitrust liability ruling alongside amicus co-signer, the International Center for Law and Economics (ICLE). Read more >>>

Click here for more amicus briefs to watch.

In the News

🎥 Do Federal Agencies Have Too Much Power?, NTD News

🗞 Federal Judge Tosses Biden Admin’s Effort to Stop Media Censorship Lawsuit, Newsmax

🗞 Nasdaq Board Diversity Rules Face Test Before Full Fifth Circuit, Bloomberg Law

🗞 The campaign to gut Washington’s power over corporate America, Politico

🗞 US Government fails to shut down censorship case, UnHerd

🗞 Supreme Court’s Decision Preserving Senator Warren’s Consumer Finance Regulator Sets ‘Dangerous’ Path for Expansion of Administrative State, The New York Sun

🗞 Washington DC’s 500 Most Influential People of 2024, Washingtonian

🗞 Washington’s Think Tanks Are Gearing Up for a Legal Assault, NOTUS

🎧 Defending Constitutional Freedoms: Battling the Administrative State’s Overreach- with Philip Hamburger, The WallBuilders Show

🎧 NCLA’s Andrew Morris on the SEC Mass Data Collection of Personal Data, O’Connor & Company