Petitions for Rulemaking Filed By NCLA

The New Civil Liberties Alliance Is Taking Federal Departments And Agencies To Task

Since July of 2018 the New Civil Liberties Alliance (NCLA) has petitioned federal agencies who too often regulate through “guidance” rather than following the process that the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) mandates for regulations—specifically notice and comment. Consistent with the Brand Memo issued by the U.S. Department of Justice, NCLA is asking federal agencies and departments to adopt formal rules barring them from promulgating and enforcing guidance that purports to bind private parties with the force of law. As such, NCLA is also asking DOJ to convert the Brand Memo into a formal rule that will last and prompts dozens of other federal departments and agencies to recognize the problems with the old way of doing guidance and adopt NCLA’s proposed rule.