Administrative Static Podcast

Latest Episodes:

NCLA Demands Trial to Prove Ex-Professor’s Case Against Cornell’s Title IX Kangaroo Court Mar 25, 2024

Show notes

NCLA has filed a brief opposing summary judgment in its client Dr. Mukund Vengalattore’s lawsuit alleging that Cornell University’s biased and faulty sexual misconduct investigation discriminated against him in violation of Title IX and defamed him. Cornell’s scheme was driven in part by the university’s Title IX office, which succumbed to pressure from the Department of Education (DOE) to rig its investigatory and adjudicatory processes against men accused of sexual misconduct.

In this episode, Litigation Counsel Casey Norman joins Mark to discuss the case.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Government Spyware on Your Phone? Unfortunately, There’s an App for That Mar 25, 2024

Show notes

The New Civil Liberties Alliance is challenging the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH) in federal court for coordinating with Google to automatically install spyware on the smartphones of more than one million Commonwealth residents, without their knowledge or consent, in a misguided effort to combat Covid-19.

Mark is joined by Litigation Counsel Sheng Li to discuss.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

NCLA Returns to First Circuit Asking It to Confront IRS’s Illegal Confiscation of Cryptocurrency Data Mar 25, 2024

Show notes

The Internal Revenue Service unlawfully seized financial records of New Civil Liberties Alliance client James Harper and thousands of others from a cryptocurrency exchange through abuse of a “John Doe” summons, without notifying account holders so they could contest the summons. IRS took Mr. Harper’s documents without any individualized suspicion to believe he had under-reported his income or failed to pay tax, and it denied him procedural due process to challenge the seizure.

NCLA has filed a reply brief in Harper v. Werfel, urging the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit to rule that these actions violated Mr. Harper’s statutory, Fourth, and Fifth Amendment rights. NCLA filed the opening brief on October 13, 2023.

Mark discusses the case and the recent oral argument with Litigation Counsel Sheng Li.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

NCLA Asks Supreme Court to Revisit 120-year-old Precedent that Led to Rights Abuses Amid Pandemic Mar 25, 2024

Show notes

NCLA has petitioned SCOTUS to hear Norris v. Stanley regarding Michigan State University’s unlawful and unscientific Covid-19 vaccine mandate. MSU fired two of NCLA’s three clients, all of whom had naturally acquired immunity to Covid, for refusing the vaccine. By conditioning their public employment on receiving unnecessary medical treatment, MSU violated their constitutional right to refuse medical intervention and ignored their statutory right to informed consent.

Senior Litigation Counsel Gregory Dolin joins Mark and Vec in this episode to discuss the case.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

NCLA Persuades Energy Dept. to Halt Unlawful Emergency Demand for Cryptocurrency Mining Data Mar 12, 2024

Show notes

NCLA settled with DOE and the Energy Information Administration to formally end an attempt to force cryptocurrency mining companies including members of the Texas Blockchain Council to hand over sensitive information about their operations through a mandatory Cryptocurrency Mining Facilities Survey. NCLA alleged that the Office of Management and Budget had given EIA emergency permission to collect this data despite EIA’s failure to demonstrate that short cutting the statutory process would prevent public harm, as federal law requires.

Vec and NCLA Litigation Counsel Kara Rollins discuss this shape shifter crypto case and celebrate NCLA’s victory in defense of privacy rights and the rule of law.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

NCLA Persuades Energy Dept. to Halt Unlawful Emergency Demand for Cryptocurrency Mining Data Mar 12, 2024

Show notes

Vec and NCLA Litigation Counsel Kara Rollins discuss this shape shifter crypto case and celebrate NCLA’s victory in defense of privacy rights and the rule of law.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

NCLA Asks Sixth Circuit to Free FINRA Hostage from SEC’s ‘Hotel California’ Adjudication Regime Mar 12, 2024

Show notes

NCLA has petitioned the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals for a writ of mandamus to force the SEC to stop delaying its ruling on our client Eric S. Smith’s appeal of an unlawful Financial Industry Regulatory Authority disciplinary decision. FINRA banned Mr. Smith from the securities brokerage industry for life and heavily fined him based on faulty accusations and despite lacking any legal right to punish him in the first place. The SEC has refused to rule on Mr. Smith’s subsequent appeal for over three years, depriving him of his livelihood, severely damaging his reputation and business prospects, and violating his statutory and constitutional rights.

Vec and NCLA Senior Litigation Counsel Russ Ryan discuss Mr. Smith’s case.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

New NCLA Lawsuit Exposes Public Company Accounting Oversight Board’s Star Chamber Proceedings Mar 12, 2024

Show notes

NCLA filed a Complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee challenging the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board’s secret, unaccountable, and inherently biased prosecutorial processes. PCAOB has investigated and brought a secret prosecution aiming to brand NCLA’s client a wrongdoer, strip away his livelihood and impose severe financial penalties against him—without a jury trial, due process of law, an impartial adjudicator, or any constitutional accountability. NCLA’s client, John Doe (a pseudonym used to protect his anonymity), asks the Court to stop these disciplinary proceedings and declare them unconstitutional.

Vec and Senior Litigation Counsel Russ Ryan discuss John Doe v. PCAOB.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

NCLA Persuades Energy Dept. to Halt Unlawful Emergency Demand for Cryptocurrency Mining Data Mar 04, 2024

Show notes

NCLA has settled with DOE and EIA to formally end an attempt to force cryptocurrency mining companies to hand over sensitive information about their operations through a mandatory Cryptocurrency Mining Facilities Survey. NCLA alleged that OMB had given EIA emergency permission to collect this data despite EIA’s failure to demonstrate that short-cutting the statutory process would prevent public harm, as federal law requires.

Mark and Vec discuss Texas Blockchain Council v. Dept. of Energy and celebrate this victory in defense of privacy rights and the rule of law.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

NCLA Amicus Brief Asks U.S. Supreme Court to Reject NLRB-Specific Preliminary Injunction Standard Mar 04, 2024

Show notes

NCLA filed an amicus curiae brief at the Supreme Court in Starbucks Corp. v. McKinney, a case challenging a deferential legal standard that allows the National Labor Relations Board to enjoin a company’s conduct without showing that it likely broke the law. NLRB can initiate an administrative enforcement proceeding and then obtain a preliminary injunction in federal district court just by demonstrating that (1) its claims are not frivolous, and (2) those claims serve NLRB’s remedial purposes.

The Sixth Circuit upheld the injunction due to prior circuit precedent. NCLA’s brief asks the Supreme Court to reject this textually baseless test, reverse the Sixth Circuit’s ruling, and require NLRB to satisfy the same injunction standard as every other litigant.

Mark and Vec discuss Starbucks Corp. v. McKinney and NCLA’s corresponding amicus brief.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.