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Mark Chenoweth

President and Chief Legal Officer


NCLA’s President and Chief Legal Officer, Mark Chenoweth, has observed the administrative state up close and personal from perches in all four branches of the federal government. Mark served as the first chief of staff to Congressman Mike Pompeo, as legal counsel to Commissioner Anne Northup at the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, as an attorney advisor in the Office of Legal Policy at the U.S. Department of Justice, and as a law clerk to the Hon. Danny J. Boggs on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.

Mark has worked in several different roles in the private sector as well. He began his legal career in D.C. as a regulatory associate at Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering. He then returned to his home state of Kansas to serve as in-house counsel for Koch Industries. Most recently he spent over four years as general counsel of the Washington Legal Foundation.

Mark is a graduate of Yale College and the University of Chicago Law School, where he co-founded the Institute for Justice Clinic on Entrepreneurship and became a Tony Patiño Fellow. Mark has been widely quoted and/or published in newspapers and websites including the New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, New Hampshire Union Leader, and Metropolitan Corporate Counsel. He has also had recurring op-eds in the Los Angeles Daily Journal, and at Forbes.com.

Not licensed in Virginia; admitted to practice in Kansas, D.C., and select federal jurisdictions.

Suing Federal Agencies (Part One)
Suing Federal Agencies (Part Two)
On Chicago's Morning Radio

Judge Sullivan Disregards Two Controlling Precedents By Appointing Amicus In Flynn Case

By: Mark Chenoweth May 14, 2020
In the News
U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan disregarded two controlling precedents from higher courts with his decision to appoint John Gleeson as amicus curiae in the U.S. v. Michael Flynn case this week. Judicial conduct similar to J. Sullivan’s in these prior, far less politically charged cases was roundly and unanimously condemned by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, D.C. Circuit Judge Sri…
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Secret Laws for the Powerful

By: Margaret A. Little July 24, 2019
The Office of Management and Budget issued a memo recently reminding all federal administrative agencies that “the Constitution vests all Federal legislative power in Congress.” That may seem obvious, but agencies often regulate Americans beyond their lawful authority and without accountability. Our organization—the New Civil Liberties Alliance—has petitioned 18 agencies to adopt a permanent rule…
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Chief Justice Roberts Is Dead Wrong About Auer Deference

By: Mark Chenoweth July 1, 2019
In the News
Chief Justice John Roberts lent the crucial fifth vote to uphold so-called Auer deference (solely on stare decisis grounds) in last week’s Kisor v. Wilkie case at the U.S. Supreme Court. In so doing, he wrote that “the distance between the majority and Justice Gorsuch is not as great as it may initially appear.” Roberts is dead wrong, and…
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