Jewel v. NSA

admin Constitutional Law, U. S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit

Today our firm filed its second amicus brief in a challenge to the most sweeping Fourth Amendment violations ever committed by the U.S. government.  (Our last brief was filed over four years ago.)  This suit seeks to stop three different mass surveillance programs operated by the federal government — programs which have seized Internet (email, internet searches, etc.) and telephone communications Read More

Remington Arms v. Soto

admin Constitutional Law, Firearms Law, U. S. Supreme Court

Today we filed our second amicus brief in the defense of a firearms manufacturer who was sued in Connecticut after the Sandy Hook shooting. Our prior brief was in the Connecticut Supreme Court. This brief supports the manufacturer’s effort to obtain review by the U.S. Supreme Court. Most of the plaintiffs’ theories were rejected by the Connecticut Supreme Court, but it allowed the case to proceed based on advertising that supposedly would have appealed to young males to conduct shootings. Our brief explains why the Connecticut Court erred in its creation of a huge exception to the federal Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, a statute designed specifically to protect firearms manufacturers and dealers from suits such as this one.

Link to brief

DHS v. Regents of the University of California

admin Constitutional Law, U. S. Supreme Court

Today we file our fourth amicus brief in support of President Trump’s authority to rescind President Obama’s unconstitutional DACA policy. Finally, the U.S. Supreme Court chose to review the lower court orders which have prevented President Trump from changing policy, and we address the issues in our merits amicus brief. We explain why the decision to end DACA was not judicially reviewable, and that DACA itself was unlawful. Our prior briefs were filed February 2, 2018 in the U.S. Supreme Court, March 14, 2018 in the Second Circuit, and December 6, 2018 in the U.S. Supreme Court.

Link to brief

The “Con-Con” Con: The Dangerous Proposal for States to Apply for an Article V Constitutional Convention

admin Constitutional Law, Publications

Today, Bill Olson and Herb Titus co-authored a paper explaining the serious dangers associated with the calling of an Article V Constitutional Convention. The paper addressed two false premises underlying the proposal: 1. The problem of big government is found in the text of the U.S. Constitution, which can be corrected by changing the words of the document. 2. The only remedy to the problem of Read More

Veronica Price v. City of Chicago

admin Constitutional Law, U. S. Supreme Court

Today our firm filed its second amicus brief challenging the City of Chicago’s “bubble zone” ordinance, designed to prevent pro-life sidewalk counselors from speaking to pregnant women at the last opportunity before they enter an abortion clinic. As we did in our first brief in the Seventh Circuit, we argue here that this case should be handled not as an abortion rights case, but Read More

Johnson v. United States

admin Constitutional Law, Firearms Law, U. S. Supreme Court

Today we filed an amicus brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to re-examine its Terry v. Ohio, stop-and-frisk doctrine. Although Terry stop and frisks were limited to a search for weapons, in this case one was used to justify seizing a bullet. Since that decision in 1968, both Fourth and Second Amendment law has changed. The property basis of the Fourth Amendment has been re-established, and the Read More

New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. City of New York (Merits)

admin Constitutional Law, Firearms Law, U. S. Supreme Court

Today we filed our second amicus brief in support of a challenge to New York City’s near prohibition on transporting firearms.  This is the first Second Amendment case that the U.S. Supreme Court has heard since Heller (2008) and McDonald (2010).  Our brief details the lower courts’ open prejudice against gun rights and its disregard for the Supreme Court’s protection of Second Read More

State of Texas v. United States

admin Constitutional Law, Health Law, Statutory Construction, U. S. Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit

Today our firm filed our ninth amicus brief opposing Obamacare.  This briefs supports challenge to Obamacare brought by the State of Texas and other states based on the fact it is unconstitutional since the penalty for the individual mandate was zeroed out by Congress in December 2017.  Earlier, we filed the only amicus brief supporting the Texas challenge in district court in Texas.  This brief Read More

Doe v. Woodard

admin Constitutional Law, U. S. Supreme Court

Today our firm filed an amicus brief involving a challenge to a Fourth Amendment violation by a social worker who strip-searched a four-year-old girl, without consent of the child or her mother, in search of tell-tale signs of child abuse.  The Tenth Circuit dismissed the case, ruling that the social worker was not liable under the Supreme Court’s doctrine of qualified immunity.  Our brief argues for limitations on the qualified immunity doctrine, and explains why the doctrine does not apply in this case.

Link to brief

CREW v. FEC

admin Constitutional Law, Election Law, Nonprofit Law, Statutory Construction, U. S. Court of Appeals, District of Columbia Circuit

Today our firm filed an amicus brief opposing a strained reading of the Federal Election Campaign Act disclosure requirement which CREW has urged a federal court to be forced on the FEC.  FEC rules have long required the disclosure by non-political committees of donors giving to support specific Independent Expenditures (IEs).  Reversing that established rule, the U.S. District Court for the District Read More

Department of Commerce v. New York

admin Constitutional Law, U. S. Supreme Court

Today we filed an amicus brief in support of the Department of Commerce’s decision to add a citizenship question for the 2020 Census. A federal court in New York issued an injunction against the administration from adding the citizenship question, but the Supreme Court granted certiorari before a judgment of the Second Circuit. Our brief explained that the purpose of the decennial census is Read More

Zodhiates v. United States

admin Constitutional Law, U. S. Supreme Court

Today we filed an amicus brief in support of a petition for certiorari challenging the government’s ability to track citizens through Cell Site Location Information (CSLI) obtained without a warrant. In this case, the trial court allowed the government to introduce 28 months of CSLI obtained by a prosecutor using a mere Grand Jury Subpoena. We argue that the Carpenter v. United States decision, Read More

Jeremy Kettler v. United States

admin Constitutional Law, Firearms Law, Statutory Construction, U. S. Supreme Court

Today, we filed a Petition for Certiorari on behalf of Jeremy Kettler, who was convicted of possessing an unregistered firearm suppressor.  Our petition asks the Supreme Court to review the Tenth Circuit’s decision, and to determine whether the National Firearms Act continues to be an appropriate exercise of Congress’s taxing power due to the many changes that have been made to the Read More

The American Legion v. American Humanist Association (Bladensburg Cross Merits)

admin Constitutional Law, U. S. Supreme Court

Today we filed our second brief in support of the Bladensburg Cross in Maryland. We earlier filed a brief at the petition stage on July 27, 2018. Our brief attacks existing Supreme Court Establishment Clause jurisprudence, and calls upon the Court not to end the judicial assault on Christianity.

Link to brief

DHS v. Regents of the University of California & Nielsen v. Vidal (DACA)

admin Constitutional Law, U. S. Supreme Court

Today, we filed our third brief in support of President Trump’s rescission of President Obama’s unconstitutional DACA program. We urge the Supreme Court to review the three pending injunctions against the rescission issued by Democrat judges. We asked the High Court to determine the legality of “universal injunctions” by district judges, as well as the constitutionality of Read More

Klein v. Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries

admin Constitutional Law, U. S. Supreme Court

Today we filed an amicus brief supporting the owners of a small bakery in Oregon (Sweetcakes by Melissa) who refused to bake a wedding cake for a same-sex wedding because of their religious convictions.  For this, they were fined $135,000 and ordered to cease and desist following their religious convictions.  This case is similar to Colorado, Masterpiece Cakeshop, a case in which we filed two Read More

Young v. Hawaii

admin Constitutional Law, Firearms Law, U. S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit

Today we filed an amicus brief opposing a request for rehearing by the State of Hawaii of a Ninth Circuit decision which overturned Hawaii’s virtual ban on citizens bearing weapons.  We opposed Hawaii’s argument that its laws against carrying firearms were long-standing, explaining that those laws existed when Hawaii was a monarchy where the reigning king or queen was sovereign — Read More

Americans for Prosperity Foundation v. Becerra

admin Constitutional Law, U. S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit

Today we filed another amicus brief in support of Americans for Prosperity’s challenge to the California Attorney General’s demand for its confidential donor information as a condition of raising money in the state. This brief urged the Ninth Circuit to grant rehearing en banc to reverse an earlier panel decision. The brief was filed for Citizens United, Citizens United Foundation, Free Read More

United States v. Zodhiates

admin Constitutional Law, U. S. Court of Appeals, Second Circuit

Today we filed an amicus brief in the Second Circuit in support of a petition for rehearing en banc, asking the Court to reconsider its decision which misapplied the Supreme Court’s decision in Carpenter v. United States, 138 S.Ct. 2006 (June 22, 2018). The trial court allowed the government to introduce evidence of “Cell Site Location Information” (“CSLI”) obtained Read More

American Legion v. American Humanist Association (Bladensburg Cross)

admin Constitutional Law, U. S. Supreme Court

Today our firm filed an amicus brief urging the Supreme Court to block a Fourth Circuit decision which found that the Bladensburg (Maryland) War Memorial, which includes a 40-foot cross, violates the Establishment Clause.  The Fourth Circuit opinion discusses the relief being sought by a few Maryland residents to be either razing the Cross, or defacing it by cutting off its arms, and making it Read More

Gundy v. United States

admin Constitutional Law, U. S. Supreme Court

Today, we filed an amicus merits brief in the Supreme Court addressing the 80-year old anti-delegation doctrine.  Our brief explains why the “intelligible principle” test that was adopted by the Court has failed to uphold the constitution’s structural integrity.  We explain that separation of powers is essential to preserve the liberty of the American people.  And we explain why it is particularly problematic for Congress to delegate to an unelected bureaucrat the power to criminalize behavior.

Link to brief