NCLA's King George III Prize Crowns Former SEC Chair Gensler 2024's Worst Civil Liberties Violator
Gensler earned the Prize in part for overseeing construction of SEC's 'Consolidated Audit Trail' ('CAT'), the largest government-mandated mass collection of personal financial data in American history. Without any statutory authority, SEC is forcing brokers, exchanges, clearinghouses and alternative trading systems to capture and send detailed information on every investor's trades in U.S. markets to a centralized database. NCLA is suing to stop the CAT in our Davidson, et al. v. Gensler lawsuit. Gensler also continued SEC's illegal 'Gag Rule' that forbids every American who settles a regulatory enforcement case with the agency from even truthfully criticizing their cases in public for the rest of their lives. NCLA's Powell, et al. v. SEC case aims to overturn the 'Gag Rule.'
NCLA also presented the National Center for Public Policy Research with our George Washington Award for Client Bravery last night. NCLA represented NCPPR in the lawsuit against SEC that persuaded the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit to overturn Nasdaq's 'Board Diversity Rules,' which sought to impose gender, race and sexual orientation quotas on corporate board membership for Nasdaq-listed companies. NCPPR is also a Plaintiff in Davidson v. Gensler and NCLA's client in our suit against unconstitutional SEC rules that would require public companies to disclose their climate-related business risks and mitigation procedures.
NCLA honored Tim Harper and Marc Wheat of Advancing American Freedom with the George Washington Award for Best Amicus Curiae Brief, which they submitted in Davidson v. Gensler. Alexander J. Phipps of Antonin Scalia Law School took home the Student Note Award accompanied by a $10,000 prize to be split with the George Mason Law Review for his timely piece: 'Interpreting the APA's Triggering Provision for Formal Adjudication After Loper Bright.' It addresses implications of NCLA's historic overthrow of Chevron deference at the Supreme Court in Relentless, Inc. v. Dept. of Commerce and Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo.
NCLA released the following statements:
'For the fifth year, NCLA's King George III Prize highlights the true abusers of Americans' civil liberties—unelected bureaucrats. Former SEC Commissioner Gary Gensler is our newest 'winner' for overseeing one of the largest information grabs in our nation's history. His Consolidated Audit Trail program is something right out of George Orwell's 1984, with Big Brother tracking every stock market trade Americans make. Chair Gensler may have been unelected, but this award holds him accountable for violating the civil rights of millions of Americans.'— Karen Harned, Director of Engagement, NCLA
'This year's nominees for America's Worst Bureaucrat were a true rogues' gallery of civil liberties violators. But former SEC Chair Gary Gensler stood apart as most deserving of the ignominy the King George III Prize brings.'— Mark Chenoweth, President, NCLA
ABOUT NCLA
NCLA is a nonpartisan, nonprofit civil rights group founded by prominent legal scholar Philip Hamburger to protect constitutional freedoms from violations by the Administrative State. NCLA's public-interest litigation and other pro bono advocacy strive to tame the unlawful power of state and federal agencies and to foster a new civil liberties movement that will help restore Americans' fundamental rights.
###
CONTACT: Joe Martyak New Civil Liberties Alliance 703-403-1111 joe.martyak@ncla.legalSign in to access your portfolio
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Boston Globe
16 minutes ago
- Boston Globe
Triumphant in trade talks, Trump and his tariffs still face a challenge in federal court
In May, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of International Trade, a specialized federal court in New York, ruled that Trump exceeded his powers when he declared a national emergency to plaster taxes — tariffs — on imports from almost every country in the world. In reaching its decision, the court combined two challenges — one by five businesses and one by 12 U.S. states — into a single case. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Now it goes on to Round Two. Advertisement On Thursday, the 11 judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, which typically specializes in patent law, are scheduled to hear oral arguments from the Trump administration and from the states and businesses that want his sweeping import taxes struck down. That court earlier allowed the federal government to continue collecting Trump's tariffs as the case works its way through the judicial system. The issues are so weighty — involving the president's power to bypass Congress and impose taxes with huge economic consequences in the United States and abroad — that the case is widely expected to reach the U.S. Supreme Court, regardless of what the appeals court decides. Advertisement Trump is an unabashed fan of tariffs. He sees the import taxes as an all-purpose economic tool that can bring manufacturing back to the United States, protect American industries, raise revenue to pay for the massive tax cuts in his 'One Big Beautiful Bill,'' pressure countries into bending to his will, even end wars. The U.S. Constitution gives the power to impose taxes — including tariffs — to Congress. But lawmakers have gradually relinquished power over trade policy to the White House. And Trump has made the most of the power vacuum, raising the average U.S. tariff to more than 18%, highest since 1934, according to the Budget Lab at Yale University. At issue in the pending court case is Trump's use of the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) to impose sweeping tariffs without seeking congressional approval or conducting investigations first. Instead, he asserted the authority to declare a national emergency that justified his import taxes. In February, he cited the illegal flow of drugs and immigrants across the U.S. border to slap tariffs on Canada, China and Mexico. Then on April 2 — 'Liberation Day,'' Trump called it — he invoked IEEPA to announce 'reciprocal'' tariffs of up to 50% on countries with which the United States ran trade deficits and a 10% 'baseline'' tariff on almost everybody else. The emergency he cited was America's long-running trade deficit. Trump later suspended the reciprocal tariffs, but they remain a threat: They could be imposed again Friday on countries that do not pre-empt them by reaching trade agreements with the United States or that receive letters from Trump setting their tariff rates himself. Advertisement The plaintiffs argue that the emergency power laws does not authorize the use of tariffs. They also note that the trade deficit hardly meets the definition of an 'unusual and extraordinary'' threat that would justify declaring an emergency under the law. The United States, after all, has run trade deficits — in which it buys more from foreign countries than it sells them — for 49 straight years and in good times and bad. The Trump administration argues that courts approved President Richard Nixon's emergency use of tariffs in a 1971 economic crisis. The Nixon administration successfully cited its authority under the 1917 Trading With Enemy Act, which preceded and supplied some of the legal language used in IEEPA. In May, the trade court rejected the argument, ruling that Trump's Liberation Day tariffs 'exceed any authority granted to the President'' under the emergency powers law. 'The president doesn't get to use open-ended grants of authority to do what he wants,'' said Reilly Stephens, senior counsel at the Liberty Justice Center, a libertarian legal group that is representing businesses suing the Trump administration over the tariffs. In the case of the drug trafficking and immigration tariffs on Canada, China and Mexico, the trade court ruled that the levies did not meet IEEPA's requirement that they 'deal with'' the problem they were supposed to address. The court challenge does not cover other Trump tariffs, including levies on foreign steel, aluminum and autos that the president imposed after Commerce Department investigations concluded that those imports were threats to U.S. national security. Nor does it include tariffs that Trump imposed on China in his first term — and President Joe Biden kept — after a government investigation concluded that the Chinese used unfair practices to give their own technology firms an edge over rivals from the United States and other Western countries. Advertisement
Hamilton Spectator
an hour ago
- Hamilton Spectator
Islamic State and al-Qaida threat is intense in Africa, with growing risks in Syria, UN experts say
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The threat from Islamic State and al-Qaida extremists and their affiliates is most intense in parts of Africa, and risks are growing in Syria, which both groups view as a 'a strategic base for external operations,' U.N. experts said in a new report. Their report to the U.N. Security Council circulated Wednesday said West Africa's al-Qaida-linked Jama'at Nasr al-Islam wal-Muslimin group, known as JNIM , and East Africa's al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab have continued to increase the territory under their control. The experts monitoring sanctions against the two groups said 'the organization's pivot towards parts of Africa continued' partly because of Islamic State losses in the Middle East due to counterterrorism pressures. There are also 'increasing concerns about foreign terrorist fighters returning to Central Asia and Afghanistan, aiming to undermine regional security,' they said. The Islamic State also continues to represent 'the most significant threat' to Europe and the Americas, the experts said, often by individuals radicalized via social media and encrypted messaging platforms by its Afghanistan-based Khorasan group. In the United States, the experts said several alleged terrorist attack plots were 'largely motivated by the Gaza and Israel conflict,' or by individuals radicalized by IS, also known as ISIL. They pointed to an American who pledged support to IS and drove into a crowd in New Orleans on Jan. 1, killing 14 people in the deadliest attack by al-Qaida or the Islamic State in the U.S. since 2016. In addition, they said, 'Authorities disrupted attacks, including an ISIL-inspired plot to conduct a mass shooting at a military base in Michigan,' and the IS Khorasan affiliate issued warnings of plots targeting Americans. In Africa's Sahel region, the experts said, JNIM expanded its area of operations, operating 'with relative freedom' in northern Mali and most of Burkina Faso. There was also a resurgence of activity by the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara, 'particularly along the Niger and Nigeria border, where the group was seeking to entrench itself.' 'JNIM reached a new level of operational capability to conduct complex attacks with drones, improvised explosive devices and large numbers of fighters against well-defended barracks,' the experts said. In East Africa, they said, 'al-Shabab maintained its resilience, intensifying operations in southern and central Somalia' and continuing its ties with Yemen's Houthi rebels. The two groups have reportedly exchanged weapons and the Houthis have trained al-Shabab fighters, they said. Syria, the experts said, remains 'in a volatile and precarious phase,' six months after the ouster of President Bashar Assad, with unnamed countries warning of growing risks posed by both IS and al-Qaida. 'Member states estimated that more than 5,000 foreign terrorist fighters were involved in the military operation in which Damascus was taken on Dec. 8,' the experts' 27-page report said. Syria's new interim President Ahmad Al-Sharaa led the rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, once an al-Qaida affiliate that later split from it. He has promised that the country will transition to a system that includes Syria's mosaic of religious and ethnic groups under fair elections, but skeptics question whether that will actually happen. The experts expressed concern at the Syrian military's announcement of several senior appointments including 'prominent Syrian armed faction leaders' and six positions for foreigners — three with the rank of brigadier general and three with the rank of colonel. 'The ideological affiliation of many of these individuals was unknown, although several were likely to hold violent extremist views and external ambitions,' the report said. As for financing, the experts said the HTS takeover in Syria was considered to pose financial problems for the Islamic State and likely to lead to a decline in its revenues. Salaries for Islamic State fighters were reduced to $50-$70 per month and $35 per family, 'lower than ever, and not paid regularly, suggesting financial difficulties,' said the experts, who did not give previous salaries or family payments. They said both al-Qaida and the Islamic State vary methods to obtain money according to locations and their ability to exploit resources, tax local communities, kidnap for ransom and exploit businesses. While the extremist groups predominantly move money through cash transfers and informal money transfer systems known as hawalas, the experts said the Islamic State has increasingly used female couriers and hawala systems where data is stored in the cloud to avoid detection, and 'safe drop boxes' where money is deposited at exchange offices and can only be retrieved with a password or code. Error! Sorry, there was an error processing your request. There was a problem with the recaptcha. Please try again. You may unsubscribe at any time. By signing up, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google privacy policy and terms of service apply. Want more of the latest from us? Sign up for more at our newsletter page .
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Trump suspends de minimis exemption for low-value imports
President Trump on Wednesday signed an executive order suspending what's known as a de minimis exemption allowing low-value parcels that are shipped to the United States to avoid tariffs. The White House said it's closing what it called a "catastrophic loophole" that shippers use to "evade tariffs and funnel deadly synthetic opioids or below-market products" into the U.S. The order goes into effect Aug. 29. The exemption had applied to parcels valued at $800 or less, and allowed overseas retailers to ship inexpensive goods to consumers in the U.S. tax-free. "President Trump is putting an end to the proliferation of shippers worldwide that, among other things, deceptively exploit the de minimis privilege in an effort to evade duties, inspection, and U.S. law," the White House said in a fact sheet outlining the new policy. Mr. Trump in May ended the de minimis loophole for imports from China and Hong Kong, which had allowed retailers like Shein and Temu to ship ultra low-cost apparel and other goods to U.S.-based consumers at bargain-basement prices. Shipments from China and Hong Kong account for most de minimis shipments to the U.S. according to the White House. The de minimis provision, which was added to the Tariff Act of 1930 several years after that law's passage, was intended to facilitate trade by eliminating the administrative burden of collecting modest import duties on low-cost goods. The number of low-value parcels entering the U.S. has surged over the past decade. Between 2015 and 2025, that figure jumped from 134 million shipments per year to nearly 1.4 billion. Customs and Border Patrol processes more than 4 million de minimis shipments to the U.S. daily, according to the White House. Retailers such as Shein and Temu were forced to scramble when the loophole for imports from China and Hong Kong was suspended earlier this year. China-based Temu halted shipments of Chinese goods to American customers and shifted to only selling products to U.S. shoppers that could be sourced from the company's U.S. warehouses. Watch: Hawaii Gov. Josh Green gives update on tsunami warning Forensics expert analysis of Jeffrey Epstein jail video contradicts government's claims Russia reacts to Trump's new deadline on Ukraine ceasefire
