Bombshell in SEC Lawsuit

Mark reveals a bombshell in SEC v. Michelle Cochran. The agency has disclosed that its enforcement staff accessed documents in at least two adjudicatory matters currently in litigation in federal court, including Cochran. NCLA represents Michelle Cochran in a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of SEC’s in-house Administrative Law Judges, who enjoy multiple layers of protection from removal by President Biden.

SEC released a statement this week admitting that “administrative support personnel from Enforcement, who were responsible for maintaining Enforcement’s case files, accessed [restricted] Adjudication memoranda via the Office of the Secretary’s databases.” This self-described “control deficiency” is actually an outrageous breach of ethics—and possibly law—by SEC that illustrates why the Constitution forbids housing prosecutorial functions and adjudicatory functions in a single agency.

NCLA’s Amicus Brief in ATF Bump Stock Cert Petition 

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) has promulgated a Final Rule that classifies bump stocks as “machineguns” without Congress’s delegation of authority to define or redefine that term. Gun Owners of America and several other organizations and individuals filed a petition for a writ of certiorari, asking the Supreme Court to settle widespread disagreement among the lower courts over (1) whether the definition of “machinegun” found in the relevant statute is clear and unambiguous, and if bump stocks meet that definition, and (2) whether courts should apply Chevron deference to an agency interpretation of federal law when the federal government declines to invoke it.

Mark discusses NCLA’s amicus in support of Gun Owners of America v. Garland.

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