Washington, DC (April 29, 2022) – The New Civil Liberties Alliance announced today that its Board of Directors has unanimously named NCLA’s founder, Philip Hamburger, as the organization’s Chief Executive Officer. In addition, the Board has unanimously appointed Mark Chenoweth as President. Mark has served as NCLA’s Executive Director and General Counsel since its founding and will continue in the general counsel role.
Prof. Hamburger, a scholar of constitutional law and its history at Columbia Law School, founded NCLA in 2017 with a mission to protect people’s civil liberties from unlawful uses of administrative power by state and federal agencies and to foster a new civil liberties movement to restore Americans’ fundamental rights. Inspired by Hamburger’s seminal 2014 work, Is Administrative Law Unlawful?, NCLA has grown into a nationally renowned public-interest law firm specializing in filing original lawsuits against government agencies and defending targets of administrative enforcement. NCLA’s suits and amicus curiae briefs focus on fighting forms of administrative power that evade the U.S. Constitution’s permitted avenues of governance. Prof. Hamburger’s scholarly contributions are unrivaled in driving the national conversation on administrative power. As CEO, Hamburger will continue to provide vision, strategic planning, and intellectual leadership to NCLA and its supporters.
Before spending the last decade leading public-interest law firms, Mark Chenoweth worked in all four branches of the federal government. He served as the first chief of staff to then-Congressman Mike Pompeo, as legal counsel to Commissioner Anne Northup at the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, as an attorney advisor in the Office of Legal Policy at the U.S. Department of Justice under AAGs Viet Dinh and Dan Bryant, and as a law clerk to the Hon. Danny J. Boggs on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Mr. Chenoweth began his legal career in D.C. as a regulatory associate at Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering, before returning to his home state of Kansas to serve as in-house counsel for Koch Industries, Inc. Most recently, he spent over four years as general counsel of the Washington Legal Foundation. He created and co-hosts NCLA’s podcast, “Administrative Static.”
As President, Mark will continue to manage day-to-day litigation and advocacy strategy at NCLA. Under his leadership, NCLA has represented more than 150 individuals and businesses, and secured victories on behalf of our clients against the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Labor Relations Board, and many other agencies. Since its founding, NCLA has filed over 120 lawsuits and amicus briefs combined and challenged the unlawful actions of more than 50 government agencies and actors. NCLA achieved a perfect 6-0 record for amicus briefs filed in administrative power cases during the U.S. Supreme Court’s October 2020 Term. NCLA currently has four cases with pending petitions for writ of certiorari, each led by a top-notch Supreme Court litigator: Floyd Abrams, Chuck Cooper, Greg Garre, and Roman Martinez.
NCLA released the following statements:
“Mark Chenoweth has been a superb leader in the fight against the Administrative State and its threat to civil liberties. In a mere five years, he has brought the NCLA into national prominence as the preeminent civil rights organization in this field. It is gratifying to recognize his role by naming him President of the NCLA.”
— Philip Hamburger, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board, NCLA
“NCLA will soon celebrate our Fifth Anniversary, and it has been my distinct privilege to grow with the organization since day one. I had no idea when Philip hired me that NCLA would engage in battles for the soul of the country so quickly or win so often. I look forward to many more years working with Philip and our extraordinary colleagues to successfully lead the fight against—and take the fight to—the Administrative State.”
— Mark Chenoweth, President and General Counsel, NCLA
ABOUT NCLA
NCLA is a nonpartisan, nonprofit civil rights group founded by prominent legal scholar Philip Hamburger to protect constitutional freedoms from violations by the Administrative State. NCLA’s public-interest litigation and other pro bono advocacy strive to tame the unlawful power of state and federal agencies and to foster a new civil liberties movement that will help restore Americans’ fundamental rights.