Press Releases

Little Sisters Supreme Court Decision Preserves Religious Liberty but Does Not Reach Delegation Issue

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...

NCLA, Gov. Baker File Petition Asking Mass. Supreme Judicial Court to Hear Civil Defense Act Case

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.

NCLA Bemoans Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s Approval of Governor Wolf’s Rule by Executive Decree

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.

NCLA Court Win Keeps SBA from Rewriting CARES Act to Exclude Small Biz Owners on Probation

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.

U.S. Supreme Court Agrees with NCLA that CFPB Director’s Protection from Removal Violates President’s Article II Duty

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.

NCLA Brings Second Lawsuit Against SBA’s Unlawful Criminal History Rule for PPP Loans

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.

NCLA Lawsuit Forces Change in SBA Regulation to Make Hundreds of PPP Loan Applicants Eligible

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.

NCLA Asks 10th Cir. to Reverse Panel’s Failure to Follow Chevron Precedent in Bump Stock Ban Case

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.

NCLA Appeals Flawed ALJ Ruling on ‘Salt Mine’ Tweet to the National Labor Relations Board

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.

Ray Lucia’s Sweetheart Settlement Proves that for the SEC the Sour Process Is the Punishment

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.

NCLA to Appeal NDNY Ruling that Stymies Ex-Cornell Prof’s Fight for Due Process in Title IX Hearings

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...

NCLA Sues Small Business Administration for Denying PPP Loans to Applicants with Criminal Histories

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...

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