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Zhonette Brown

General Counsel and Senior Litigation Counsel

Zhonette brings a quarter-century of litigation experience to NCLA. After a federal clerkship, she spent many years litigating at large law firms in Washington, D.C., and Denver, Colorado, before beginning public interest litigation in 2018. 

Zhonette has litigated in state, federal, and international venues and in matters ranging from pro bono custody issues to multi-district and class action cases for Fortune 100 companies. Zhonette spent the first part of her career focused on high-stakes complex commercial litigation and white-collar defense. Since changing her legal practice to taming the Administrative State, Zhonette has focused on the Administrative Procedure Act, natural resources, takings issues and other constitutional claims. 

Zhonette is a graduate of Georgetown University Law Center and is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia, the State of Colorado, the Commonwealth of Virginia, and various federal courts.

Articles by Zhonette

The Loper Bright/Relentless Promise versus the Realities of the D.C. Circuit’s Post-Loper Cases

By: Zhonette Brown November 20, 2025
Blogs
It has been almost a year and a half since the Supreme Court overruled Chevron, and its requirement that courts sometimes “defer to ‘permissible’ agency interpretations of” statutes. In doing so, the Supreme Court unqualifiedly stated that, “[i]n the business of statutory interpretation, if it is not the best, it is not permissible.” One would…
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The Silver Thread FCC v. Consumers’ Research Added to Nondelegation

By: Zhonette Brown August 7, 2025
Blogs
Asking for a silver lining in the Supreme Court’s FCC v. Consumers’ Research nondelegation opinion may be too much. Perhaps, however, an optimist can find threads of reasons to hope for a better outcome in the future. Last November the Supreme Court granted certiorari in FCC v. Consumers’ Research. Many court-watchers were hopeful the Supreme…
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The Denial of Natural Immunity to Covid (and consequent denial of vax exemption)

By: Zhonette Brown April 7, 2025
COVID-19 | FIve Years Page
The Administrative State’s collective disregard for the benefits of natural immunity to Covid provides another example of how it blindly prioritized bureaucratic will over liberty and even logic. Federal officials were hell-bent on making sure everyone received a Covid vaccine, whether they “needed” it or not. Bureaucrats demanded that we “trust the science,” while they…
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Zhonette Brown
General Counsel and Senior Litigation Counsel