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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

EPA and the AIM Act: The Very Definition of Tyranny

By: Zhonette Brown October 10, 2024
Blogs
As James Madison famously observed, “[t]he accumulation of all powers legislative, executive, and judiciary in the same hands, whether one, a few or many, … may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.” Federalist No. 47. Using that definition, the Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) is a tyrant, due in part to the poorly crafted…
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Give Me Liberty, or Give Me…Whatever EPA Wants 

By: Zhonette Brown May 15, 2024
Blogs
According to the Supreme Court, “[d]eciding what competing values will or will not be sacrificed to the achievement of a particular [governmental] objective is the very essence of legislative choice[.]” So if Congress passes a law, but leaves that decision to an administrative agency, is the agency legislating in violation of the constitutional mandate that…
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Beyond the Statute: Government "Logic" and the Cargill Case

By: Zhonette Brown February 1, 2024
Blogs
Later this month, NCLA’s second of three cases before the Supreme Court this term will be argued, Garland v. Cargill. Like the Relentless v. Department of Commerce case heard last month, Cargill follows an all too familiar plot in the Administrative State: the evolution of a federal agency’s statutory interpretation when the agency decides it…
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Zhonette Brown
General Counsel and Senior Litigation Counsel