Washington, DC (July 8, 2020) – The New Civil Liberties Alliance, a nonpartisan, nonprofit civil rights group, commends today’s U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding the religious liberty of Catholic nuns in the Little Sisters of the Poor v. Pennsylvania case. The Court ruled 7-2 in favor of the Little Sisters, holding that the religious exemption rule issued by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services did not violate…

Washington, DC (July 2, 2020) – The New Civil Liberties Alliance, a nonpartisan, nonprofit civil rights group, has filed a joint petition with Governor Charlie Baker and the Attorney General’s Office to transfer the case of Dawn Desrosiers, et al. v. Governor Charles D. Baker from Worcester Superior Court to the Supreme Judicial Court. The petition asks the Court to decide whether Governor Baker’s March 10, 2020 Civil Defense State of Emergency declaration and the ensuing emergency orders responding to the coronavirus pandemic are lawful exercises of gubernatorial authority.

Washington, DC (July 1, 2020) – The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania issued its decision today in Tom Wolf v. Joseph B. Scarnati, et al. in support of Governor Wolf. The court never even allowed oral argument in this very significant matter of state constitutional interpretation.

Washington, DC (June 30, 2020) – The New Civil Liberties Alliance, a nonpartisan, nonprofit civil rights group today is celebrating a victory in the case of Carmen’s Corner Store, et al. v. U.S. Small Business Administration, et al. A federal judge granted a lifeline yesterday to Carmen’s Corner Store and Retail4Real, both businesses of Mr. Altimont Mark Wilks from Hagerstown, MD, who is desperately trying to keep its doors open.

Washington, DC (June 29, 2020) – Today the U.S. Supreme Court agreed with the points argued by the New Civil Liberties Alliance, a nonpartisan, nonprofit civil rights group in its amicus brief filed in Seila Law LLC v. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau last December. Accordingly, the Court struck down the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Director’s protection from Presidential removal as unconstitutional.

Washington, DC (June 26, 2020) – The New Civil Liberties Alliance, a nonpartisan, nonprofit civil rights group filed a complaint in MoveCorp, et al. v. U.S. Small Business Administration, et al., in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. NCLA represents Michael Loughrey, who is majority owner of MoveCorp, a moving company serving local business clients in Austin, Texas. The Small Business Administration (SBA) unlawfully denied Mr. Loughrey’s application for a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act by virtue of SBA’s unlawful “Criminal History Rule,” which excludes all persons indicted or charged of any crime.

Washington, DC (June 26, 2020) – Altimont Mark Wilks, a small business owner from Hagerstown, Md., who was unlawfully barred from applying for a much-needed Paycheck Protection Program (“PPP”) loan, can finally breathe a sigh of relief. The New Civil Liberties Alliance, a nonpartisan, nonprofit civil rights group, filed a motion for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction against the Small Business Administration (SBA) on Mr. Wilks’s behalf on June 17.

Washington, DC (June 19, 2020) – The New Civil Liberties Alliance today filed a petition for rehearing en banc in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit in the case of W. Clark Aposhian v. William Barr, Attorney General of the United States, et al. NCLA is seeking review from the full Court, arguing that the panel majority erred in last month’s 2-1 decision to deny NCLA client Clark Aposhian’s appeal.

Washington, DC (June 19, 2020) – The New Civil Liberties Alliance, a nonpartisan, nonprofit civil rights group, today filed exceptions and a supporting brief to the April 22nd decision issued by a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) in Joel Fleming v. FDRLST Media, LLC.

Washington, DC (June 16, 2020) – The New Civil Liberties Alliance, a nonpartisan, nonprofit civil rights organization, has negotiated a settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on behalf of its clients, Ray Lucia Sr. and Raymond J. Lucia Companies. Mr. Lucia waged a long, contentious battle, refusing to bow to an agency with unlimited resources unwilling to admit that its prosecution efforts had become wholly disproportionate to the alleged infraction.

Washington, DC (June 16, 2020) – Dr. Mukund Vengalattore was a well-liked and well-regarded young physics professor at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY. He spent all his time running a bustling lab full of graduate students and attracting steady streams of federal funding when his Title IX nightmare began. In 2014, a former grad student whom Cornell dismissed for academic reasons accused him of sexual misconduct. She had sworn publicly when leaving campus that she would make sure Dr. Vengalattore never got tenure, and she followed through with a Title IX complaint…

Washington, DC (June 11, 2020) – The New Civil Liberties Alliance, a nonpartisan, nonprofit civil rights group filed the complaint, Carmen’s Corner Store, et al. v. U.S. Small Business Administration, et al., today in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland. NCLA represents Altimont Mark Wilks, a small business owner from Hagerstown, Md., who was unlawfully barred from applying for PPP loans because he is still on probation. The suit challenges unlawful portions of the agency’s Interim Final Rule…

Washington, DC (June 5, 2020) – The New Civil Liberties Alliance, a nonpartisan, nonprofit civil rights group, filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in George K. Young, Jr. v. State of Hawaii, et al. in support of Mr. Young. NCLA’s brief dissuades the full court from deferring to state administrators’ factual speculations and to their interpretations of the U.S. Constitution or of state statutes and regulations.

Washington, DC (June 4, 2020) – Imagine being silenced for life and unable to tell your side of the story. There is a “Gag Rule” in place at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) meant to do just that. Every year, people are coerced into settling with the agency out of fear of a drawn-out, expensive administrative hearing process that can ruin reputations, disrupt families, destroy businesses, and end prosperous careers.

Washington, DC (June 3, 2020) – The New Civil Liberties Alliance, a nonpartisan, nonprofit civil rights group, filed an amicus brief  today in the Supreme Court of the United States in Sharonell Fulton, et al. v. City of Philadelphia, et al. In 2018, Philadelphia abruptly terminated foster placement through Catholic Social Services (CSS) leaving foster parents like Sharonell Fulton, who has fostered more than 40 children, without CSS’s support.

Washington, DC (June 2, 2020) – The New Civil Liberties Alliance, a nonpartisan, nonprofit civil rights group filed the complaint, Matthew Johnson v. Philip D. Murphy, et al., today against Governor Murphy in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey, challenging Executive Order No. 128. The order, which violates federal constitutional law, state constitutional law, state contract law and state landlord-tenant law, purports to allow tenants to use their security deposits to offset rent or back rent.

Washington, DC (June 2, 2020) – The New Civil Liberties Alliance, a nonpartisan, nonprofit civil rights group, filed an amicus brief today in the Oregon Supreme Court in Elkhorn Baptist Church, et al. v. Katherine Brown. A broad coalition of local churches brought the case after being seriously disturbed by Governor Katherine Brown’s restrictions on religious gatherings since late March in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Washington, DC (June 2, 2020) – The New Civil Liberties Alliance, a nonpartisan, nonprofit civil rights group, has filed a complaint and a motion for preliminary injunction in the U.S. District Court for the District of Nebraska. The case, Kevin Gubbels and Insure My Honey, Inc. v. U.S. Department of Agriculture and U.S. Risk Management Agency, was filed against the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the U.S. Risk Management Agency (RMA), and the respective heads of those entities.

Washington, DC (June 1, 2020) – In response to the serious health threat posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker declared a state of emergency under the Massachusetts Civil Defense Act to justify imposing draconian, “one-size-fits-all” measures across the Commonwealth. Under his Civil Defense State of Emergency, the Governor has arbitrarily declared which businesses are “essential” and closed those he determined were not.

Washington, DC (May 22, 2020) – The New Civil Liberties Alliance, a nonpartisan, nonprofit civil rights group, filed an amicus brief today in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in Campaign Legal Center v. Federal Election Commission. The Campaign Legal Center alleges the Federal Election Commission has taken no action on an administrative complaint CLC filed and that FEC’s “failure to act” is “contrary to law.”

Washington, DC (May 18, 2020) – The New Civil Liberties Alliance, a nonpartisan, nonprofit civil rights group filed an opening brief today in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit on behalf of client Lisa Milice against the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). NCLA is helping Milice, a new mother, challenge CPSC’s practice of keeping consumer product safety standards hidden behind a private paywall.

Washington, DC (May 12, 2020) – The New Civil Liberties Alliance, a nonpartisan, nonprofit civil rights group filed a joint amicus brief in the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in Axon Enterprise Incorporated v. Federal Trade Commission, et al. The brief filed in conjunction with TechFreedom, a public policy think tank based in Washington, DC, asks the Court to reverse…

Washington, DC (May 11, 2020) – The New Civil Liberties Alliance, a nonpartisan, nonprofit civil rights group, submitted an amicus brief to the U.S. Supreme Court today in support of the petition for a writ of certiorari filed by a group of children’s hospitals from around the country. NCLA believes the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals erred in reversing the district court’s decision in this case…

Washington, DC (May 8, 2020) – The New Civil Liberties Alliance, a nonpartisan, nonprofit civil rights group filed an amicus brief late last night in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in Donahue Francis v. Kings Park Manor, Inc., et al., on rehearing en banc.

Washington, DC (May 7, 2020) – Today, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit invoked the Chevron doctrine to deny NCLA client Clark Aposhian’s appeal of his challenge to ATF’s bump stock ban in a 2-1 vote. Mr. Aposhian, who last spring was the “last man in America” to own a legal bump stock, thinks that only Congress should be able to ban bump stocks.

Washington, DC (May 6, 2020) – The New Civil Liberties Alliance, a nonpartisan, nonprofit civil rights group filed an amicus brief yesterday in U.S. v. Zimmian Tabb, urging the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit to abandon “Stinson Deference.” This judicial deference doctrine requires federal judges to defer to commentary the United States Sentencing Commission (U.S.S.C.) has written interpreting the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines (U.S.S.G.).

Washington, DC (May 4, 2020) – The New Civil Liberties Alliance, a nonpartisan, nonprofit civil rights group filed an amicus brief Friday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in support of Oracle’s case against the Department of Labor (DOL). Oracle has challenged a portion of the regulations that set up the enforcement and adjudication system in the Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP). 

Washington, DC (April 29, 2020) – The need for our government to set forth consistent, predictable rules has never been greater, and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is no exception. Over the last year, the SEC has used its enforcement authority, rather than its rulemaking authority, to change longstanding, widespread, and previously uncontroversial business practices in the mutual fund space.

Washington, DC (April 28, 2020) – The New Civil Liberties Alliance, a nonpartisan, nonprofit civil rights group filed an amicus brief in the Supreme Court of Georgia in the case of Premier Healthcare Investments, L.L.C. v. UHS of Anchor, L.P. NCLA submitted a neutral brief in support of neither party that solely focuses on the constitutional arguments for rejecting judicial deference and reaffirming the judiciary’s fundamental role outlined in the Constitution to say what the law is.

Washington, DC (April 27, 2020) – The New Civil Liberties Alliance, a nonpartisan, nonprofit civil rights group, today filed an amicus curiae brief in support of the American Institute for International Steel, Inc. AIIS has filed a petition seeking a Writ of Certiorari from the U.S. Supreme Court in American Inst. for International Steel, Inc. v. U.S., claiming that a tariff law improperly divests legislative power from Congress to the President—NCLA agrees.