Government regulations are based on enacted laws, and those laws in turn rest on the limited powers granted to government by the Constitution. Whether these constitutional limits succeed in actually reining in government is one of the basic issues facing our country. This is where CEI’s legal expertise comes in.
Since 1986, CEI has engaged in strategic litigation on regulatory and constitutional issues, in areas ranging from free speech to environmental mandates and health care policy to financial regulation. This includes court challenges to both Obamacare and the Dodd-Frank Act. CEI’s legal team works to defend the Constitution, protect the rule of law, and bring transparency and accountability to the regulatory state.
Legal Issue Areas
Featured Posts

Blog
This Week’s Civil Forfeiture Outrages: Do People Facing Forfeiture Get Due Process?
A high-profile reversal of a recent civil forfeiture case makes me wonder: Do those who face civil forfeiture generally receive due process of law? That…

Blog
Peer Review for Thee but Not for Me
In February 2017, the Competitive Enterprise Institute petitioned the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to reconsider the 2009 Greenhouse Gas Endangerment Finding. CEI explained in detail…

News Release
Court Rules VA Attorney General Must Turn Over Emails Related to “Law Enforcement for Rent” Scheme
A Circuit Court in Richmond, VA on Tuesday ordered the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) of Virginia to conduct a proper search for…
Studies
Five Myths of Civil Forfeiture
Executive Summary Every year, federal, state, and local government agents take—and permanently keep—billions of dollars of Americans’ property through civil forfeiture. The practice of civil…
“They’re Taking My Stuff!”
What You Need to Know about Seizure and Forfeiture…
Pirates at the Parchment Gates
View Full Document as PDF In recent years, state attorneys general (AGs), have partnered with private lawyers working on a contingency fee…
Blog
Countering Civil Forfeiture Myths with Facts
Every year, federal, state, and local government agents take—and permanently keep—billions of dollars of Americans’ property through civil forfeiture. The practice of civil forfeiture creates…
Federal Judge Invalidates Federal Mask Mandate
For over a year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has threatened criminal and civil penalties and mandatory removal for not wearing a…
Lassman Tells Insider President Biden’s So-Called Billionaire’s Tax Is Unconstitutional
In a recent interview with Insider, CEI President Kent Lassman outlined why the so-called Billionaire’s Minimum Income Tax included in President Biden’s 2022 White…
News
Report: Government Seizes Billions in Private Property, but Citizens Have Little Recourse
Every year, federal, state, and local government agents take and permanently keep, collectively, billions of dollars of Americans’ property through a practice called civil forfeiture,…
Judge Rejects CDC’s Unfounded Mask Mandate for Travel
U.S. District Court Judge Mizelle today vacated the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) mask mandate for public transit, such as airports, train stations, airplanes,…
Constitutional Challenge to Trump Tax Repatriation Law to be Argued Tomorrow in Ninth Circuit
On Friday, January 14, the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals will hear a constitutional challenge to a provision in the 2017 federal tax reform…
Op-Eds
City Journal
An Affirmative Action Endgame?
The Supreme Court has agreed to hear two cases challenging racial preferences in university admissions. It’s an important move that could pave the way toward…
National Review
Unite and Get Ready to Fight
The Wall Street Journal recently ran one of those opinion pieces you know you’ll remember years later. In “The Impossible Insurrection of January…
The Washington Examiner
The death of democracy
Repost: Michael Pack’s piece at the Washington Examiner, as part of their Restoring America Project I have witnessed the death…