{"id":52054,"date":"2026-10-30T18:54:29","date_gmt":"2026-10-30T18:54:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/allonlinebanglanewspapers.com\/news\/ncla-to-supreme-court-uphold-courts-supervisory-duty-to-set-aside-unlawful-agency-rules\/"},"modified":"2026-10-30T18:54:29","modified_gmt":"2026-10-30T18:54:29","slug":"ncla-to-supreme-court-uphold-courts-supervisory-duty-to-set-aside-unlawful-agency-rules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/allonlinebanglanewspapers.com\/news\/ncla-to-supreme-court-uphold-courts-supervisory-duty-to-set-aside-unlawful-agency-rules\/","title":{"rendered":"NCLA to Supreme Court: Uphold Courts\u2019 Supervisory Duty to \u2018Set Aside\u2019 Unlawful Agency Rules"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Washington, DC, Oct. 30, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — The New Civil Liberties Alliance filed an amici curiae <\/i>brief<\/a> today in Department of Homeland Security v. D.V.D.<\/i><\/a> urging the U.S. Supreme Court to reaffirm that federal courts can and must \u201cset aside\u201d unlawful rules that government agencies issue under the Administrative Procedure Act.<\/p>\n

Conservative legal voices in the judiciary and the academy have offered competing opinions on this issue. Some wrongly argue that the APA does not allow lower courts to set aside unlawful agency action for anyone except a particular lawsuit\u2019s plaintiffs. Referencing the Supreme Court\u2019s June 2025 Trump v. CASA, Inc<\/i>. decision, which prohibits district courts from issuing universal injunctions to stop congressional statutes<\/i> (aside from class-action lawsuits), they claim setting agency rules aside for all Americans suffers from similar defects as enjoining statutes.<\/p>\n

But NCLA and its founder Philip Hamburger strongly disagree. They point out that the statutory APA language instructing courts to \u201cset aside\u201d unlawful agency actions is adopted from and refers to how courts review their own judgments and the judgments of lower courts, including the ability to completely overturn those judgments. This means judges have a supervisory duty over agency rulemaking to \u201cset aside\u201d unlawful agency actions that violate the Constitution or the will of Congress as expressed in statutes. That is what judicial review entails.<\/p>\n

When a court sets aside an unlawful rule, it is acting on the rule itself, not on the parties to the dispute. That does mean that the rule is set aside for everyone. But the agency is not a \u201cparty\u201d in such suits in a traditional sense. After all, would a court ever remand a matter to one of the parties to resolve, as courts often do with challenges to rules? Whenever courts do that, they are treating the agency like a lower court that issued an errant decision.<\/p>\n

Changing this status quo would require everyone to bring separate lawsuits to stop an unlawful rule\u2019s application to them, and they would continue to be harmed until they persuade a court on every point necessary to lift the rule in their case. Unlawful rules would not stop violating the civil liberties of Americans who could not afford to sue. The Court should instead maintain the status quo, which allows organizations like NCLA to bring public-interest lawsuits that stop agency actions from violating the civil liberties of all Americans, not just plaintiffs who sue.<\/p>\n

NCLA released the following statements:<\/b>
\u201cCourts have a power, and indeed a duty, to set aside unlawful agency action, and this is essential for preserving the supremacy of law over the administrative state.\u201d
\u2014\u00a0Philip Hamburger, Founder and CEO, NCLA<\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cThe power of federal judges to vacate rules is supervisory, not equitable, power. The Solicitor General is wrong to treat vacatur like nationwide injunctions, and the Court should not be misled into adopting the SG\u2019s view.\u201d
\u2014 Mark Chenoweth, President and Chief Legal Officer, NCLA<\/b><\/p>\n

For more information visit the amicus<\/i> page <\/b>here<\/a>.<\/b><\/p>\n

ABOUT NCLA<\/b><\/p>\n

NCLA<\/a> is a nonpartisan, nonprofit civil rights group founded by prominent legal scholar\u00a0Philip Hamburger<\/a> to protect constitutional freedoms from violations by the Administrative State. NCLA\u2019s 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\u2019 fundamental rights.<\/p>\n\n <\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Washington, DC, Oct. 30, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — The New Civil Liberties Alliance filed an amici curiae brief today in Department of Homeland Security v. D.V.D. urging the U.S. Supreme Court to reaffirm that federal courts can and must \u201cset aside\u201d unlawful rules that government agencies issue under the Administrative Procedure Act. Conservative legal voices […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":52055,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/ml.globenewswire.com\/Resource\/Download\/14b409cd-b5e7-48a4-ab7b-2fce67049d07","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-52054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-globenewswire"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t