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NCLA is building a new civil liberties movement to protect us from the Administrative State. Join us!

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How Could SCOTUS Get the CFPB Case So Wrong?

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is funded uniquely and unconstitutionally. CFPB draws money directly from the earnings of the Federal Reserve System to carry out the bureau’s duties, completely sidestepping Congress's normal appropriations control. And yet, in a 7-2…

Event

Swimming Against the Tide: Fighting Censorship and Compelled Speech in Women's Sports

Making the University of Pennsylvania women's swim team should have been the apex of Paula Scanlan's competitive swimming career. Instead, she was subjected to censorship, coercion, compelled speech, and a host of other indignities, all because she didn't think she…

Our Clients

NCLA represents citizens across America who are willing to take on the government. Whether it is federal, state, or local administrative power, that takes courage and conviction.
Meet some of the bravest people we know: our clients.

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Our Focus Areas

Judicial Deference

Deference doctrines require judges to defer to an administrative agency’s fact finding, or its interpretation of statutes and regulations. Thus, judges surrender their independent judgment and, where the government is a party, must exhibit systematic bias in the government’s favor, which denies due process of law to the other litigant.

Due Process of Law

The due process of law guarantees a right to be held to account only through the processes of an impartial court—something administrative tribunals violate every day.

Scope of Authority/ Nondelegation

The structure of the Constitution allows only Congress to legislate, only the Executive to enforce laws, and only the Judiciary to decide cases. But the Administrative State evades the Constitution’s avenues of governance when executive agencies issue regulations without statutory authorization from Congress.

Free Speech

The Administrative State tries to squelch speech, especially through licensing, speech bans, and speech mandates. Licensing requires one to get the government’s permission prior to speaking. Nothing was more clearly forbidden by the First Amendment than prior restraints on speech, but such controls are now commonplace.

Unreasonable Searches

The Fourth Amendment forbids warrantless searches and seizures of information, yet the Administrative State violates this right to privacy through administrative subpoenas and warrants, automated information collection devices, civil investigative demands, and “voluntary” requests for information.

Guidance Abuse

Agency guidance is easier to promulgate than formal rules and regulations, so agencies prefer to issue it. Such “guidance” supplies relatively informal indications of how an agency interprets rules and statutes. Although guidance is not permitted to bind Americans (unlike laws made by elected legislators), agencies treat guidance as binding and courts often fail to stop them.

Conditions on Spending

Administrative agencies use unconstitutional conditions on spending to regulate the conduct of grantees. Rather than rule through law, the government simply purchases submission.

Judicial Deference Cases

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The King George III Prize

FOR THE WORST ABUSERS OF CIVIL LIBERTIES

The New Civil Liberties Alliance is proud to announce the annual King George III Prize – a campaign to call attention to the most egregious violations of our basic civil liberties by highlighting the people and institutions responsible for those abuses. In many cases, especially where the Administrative State is involved, the perpetrators are unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats protected by byzantine layers of regulatory process. Their violations are often hidden from public view, obfuscated by a lack of notice, circumvention of due process, and a damnably incurious press.

But no more! The King George III Prize is here to shine the light of transparency on these constitutional misdeeds! They say sunlight is the best disinfectant. Look on these execrable works, ye reader, and despise!