In the News

Professor who had COVID sues George Mason University over vax mandate
A law professor sued George Mason University over its coronavirus vaccine mandate, claiming he’s built a “robust natural immunity” after recovering from COVID-19 last year. Antonin Scalia Law School professor Todd Zywicki, 55, calls the Virginia university’s...

Law professor sues George Mason University, challenging covid vaccine mandate
A law-school professor filed a lawsuit Wednesday challenging George Mason University’s coronavirus vaccine mandate, arguing it is unnecessarily coercive and unconstitutional. The nonprofit New Civil Liberties Alliance filed the case against George Mason’s president...

SEC Loses Jury Trial Against Spartan In ‘Shell Factory’ Case
A Florida federal jury on Friday largely rejected the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's allegations that Spartan Securities Group Ltd. was complicit in a scheme to create sham companies and fraudulently sell their stock on over-the-counter markets. Published...

Landlords Lose Challenge to Eviction Ban at 11th Circuit
An effort by a national landlord group to strike down the federal directive halting residential evictions during the Covid-19 pandemic was rebuffed Wednesday by a divided 11th Circuit panel, which ruled that the landlords failed to show they would suffer irreparable...

Landlords lose latest challenge to CDC eviction freeze
A federal appeals court on Wednesday rejected a bid by a group of landlords seeking to overturn the Centers for Disease Control's nationwide freeze on many residential evictions during the COVID-19 pandemic. Read the full article

Federal appeals court leaves evictions moratorium in place, a blow to landlords
A federal appeals court ruled Wednesday the federal government’s ban on evicting tenants can remain in place over protest from mom-and-pop landlords. A group of landlords had asked the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit to halt the eviction moratorium,...

For Smaller Landlords, Rent Moratoriums Just Pass The Payment Buck Up The Chain
Keep living in an apartment without paying rent? In the “before times,” it would have been unthinkable — at least without a concerted legal battle with an angry landlord. During the COVID-19 pandemic, though, all that went out the window. Congress first put an...

IRS Crypto Exchange Data Suit Wrongly Tossed, 1st Circ. Told
A New Hampshire federal court wrongly found that a man's efforts to block the Internal Revenue Service from obtaining his records from cryptocurrency platforms would unlawfully restrain the collection of tax, he told the First Circuit. James Harper's suit requesting...

NCLA Files Appeal Against the IRS — Law Firm Claims Tax Agency Unlawfully Seizes Crypto Data of Thousands
On Friday, the public interest law firm New Civil Liberties Alliance (NCLA) filed an opening brief in the cryptocurrency case of James Harper v. Charles P. Rettig. The NCLA argues that Harper’s Fourth and Fifth Amendment constitutional rights were violated by the...

FDA ends up on losing side of Rotenberg case in DC circuit court
The FDA’s attempts to thwart the use of electrostimulation devices for self-injurious and aggressive behavior came up short in an appeals court hearing of Rotenberg v. FDA, largely because the FDA’s approach suggested the agency would control the practice of medicine....

Gulf boat operators allege high-tech fisheries monitoring violates their constitutional rights
Charter vessel operators in the Gulf of Mexico are suing federal regulators for allegedly violating their constitutional rights through a fisheries-monitoring program that mandates 24-hour electronic surveillance of the boats. The nonprofit New Civil Liberties...

D.C. Circuit rejects Cato Institute lawsuit over SEC ‘gag’ rule
The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit said a Libertarian think tank cannot block the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission from enforcing settlements that ban defendants from denying the agency's claims. Read the full article

Unreported: New Civil Liberties Alliance notches wins against ‘unlawful power’ of bureaucracies
One winning force in the fight against the Left’s relentless assault on freedom is a group taking aim at the unconstitutional abuses of federal and state bureaucracies. Several victories have been won in recent weeks against the leftist axis of Team Biden, Big Tech...

Challenge to CPSC Rule Over Access to Standard Filed Too Late
A consumer can’t pursue her bid for free access to a full industry standard on infant bath seats that was incorporated into government safety regulations because she didn’t file her challenge early enough, the D.C. Circuit ruled Friday. Published by Bloomberg Law

The Hamburger Court
What in the world are historians going to call this Supreme Court? Chief Justice Roberts has been so all over the map, ideologically, that it would be hard to call it the “Roberts Court.” They could try the “Thomas Court,” after the towering conservative who is its...

NCLA Explains Why ‘Voluntary’ Vaccine Passport Programs Are Coercive
The Globe this week attended a panel discussion by the New Civil Liberties Alliance and a panel of experts to discuss vaccine passports. With California Gov. Gavin Newsom continuing to claim he isn’t requiring vaccine passports in the state, he has instituted...

Week Ahead in Securities
Here are some upcoming events of interest to the securities law community. Unless otherwise noted, all times are local, and court appearances are virtual due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Read the full article

High Court Nixes California Collection of Donor Info From Political Nonprofits
In a closely watched case for nonprofit political groups that want privacy for their supporters, the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday struck down a California law that says groups seeking tax-exempt status must tell the state the names of some of their biggest donors....

Landlords fear eviction moratorium could have long-term effect on North Carolina housing
North Carolina's eviction moratorium ends Thursday, but many believe landlords and tenants will continue to struggle even after the extended national moratorium expires. Republican members of the North Carolina Council of State rejected a one-month extension of the...

Ohio AG Wins Injunction Against Pandemic-Aid Restrictions
Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost won a federal injunction Thursday to prevent enforcement of a provision in the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act he claimed held stimulus funds hostage and allowed the federal government to "commandeer state taxing authority." Read...

U.S. Supreme Court extends CDC eviction ban by one month. Here’s what to know
Landlords still filed for hundreds of thousands of evictions under the moratorium, according to the Eviction Lab at Princeton University, which has been tracking the issue. Caleb Kruckenberg, litigation counsel at the New Civil Liberties Alliance, said he has a client...

Federalist Says NLRB Couldn’t Challenge ‘Salt Mine’ Tweet
The National Labor Relations Board overstepped its bounds by ordering The Federalist's publisher to delete a joking tweet threatening to punish workers for unionizing even though no employees complained, the outlet argued in its Third Circuit challenge to the board's...

Broad support for ending eviction moratorium early, aiding tenants and landlords
As the state’s fiscal year comes to an end, lawmakers are awaiting Gov. Phil Murphy’s signature on a number of key bills, one of which would give more support to renters facing a mass eviction crisis. Legislators last week agreed to end the state’s eviction moratorium...

The Endless Eviction Moratorium
The CDC extended the national moratorium on evictions through the end of July 2021... again. The agency indicated that “this is intended to be the final extension of the moratorium,” but the agency has extended the moratorium multiple times since it was first issued...

CDC Eviction Ban Extended, Tenant Advocates Cite Future Challenges
Less than a week before the nationwide eviction ban was set to expire, top health officials extended it for another 30 days to help tenants who are unable to pay rent during the Covid-19 pandemic. Previously scheduled to end on the last day of June, the moratorium...