Opinion
Chief Justice Roberts Is Dead Wrong About Auer Deference
Originally published in Forbes on June 30, 2019 Chief Justice John Roberts lent the crucial fifth vote to uphold so-called Auer deference (solely on stare decisis grounds) in last week’s Kisor v. Wilkie case at the U.S. Supreme Court. In so doing, he wrote that “the...
Unless Fixed Now, Ninth Circuit Case Granting Immunity For Police Theft Will Prove Hard To Unwind
Originally published in Forbes on June 18, 2019 Wide consequences will stem from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit’s recent decision granting qualified immunity to several Fresno, California police officers sued for theft. These consequences will prove...
INSIGHT: Theft by Police Officers Is Unconstitutional, Right?
Originally published in Bloomberg Law on June 17, 2019 Fresno, Calif., police officers may have just gotten away with grand larceny. The Ninth Circuit recently passed on the opportunity to establish—once-and-for-all—that police officers stealing private property while...
Leaving Them Speechless: A Mere Government Agency Cannot Silence Americans for Life
Originally published in New York Law Journal on June 4, 2019 Download PDF version here When government agencies such as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) bring charges, their press releases are...
Commentary: ATF ruling leaves Utah with the last bump stock standing
Originally published in the Salt Lake Tribune on April 9, 2019 Clark Aposhian, a resident of Utah, is now the last man in America who can legally own a bump stock. Last month, a formal bump stock ban went into effect. The ban ordered anyone who lawfully purchased one...
Will courts allow Congress to pass the bump stock buck?
Originally published in The Hill on April 5, 2019 Following the tragic mass shooting in Las Vegas on Oct. 1, 2017, where the assailant reportedly used firearms equipped with bump stocks, lawmakers in both parties attempted to restrict these devices legislatively, to...
Bump Stock Rule Puts Constitution In The Crosshairs
Originally published in Forbes on March 1, 2019 Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi recently warned Republicans that if a GOP president can declare a national emergency over a wall on the southern border, the next Democrat president could declare one over gun violence....
The Hill: The SEC should listen to Sen. Cotton
Originally published in The Hill on December 17, 2019 On Tuesday Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) asked tough questions to the chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Jay Clayton, during a banking committee hearing about an opaque form of regulation which...
Forbes: Will Constitutional Defects With Administrative Law Judges Collapse The SEC’s House Of Cards?
"November 30, 2018 marked an obscure but important one-year anniversary. On that date, shortly after the Solicitor General had filed a brief confessing error in the U.S. Supreme Court, the Securities and Exchange Commission sought to fix the newly exposed defects in...
Lucia sues the SEC again – challenging ALJ Constitutionality and seeking dismissal
A new lawsuit filed in federal court in California seeks to have further SEC ALJ proceedings against former IA Ray Lucia dismissed, claiming the ALJ system remains unconstitutional because judges can only be fired via the civil service system. The latest legal twist...