Columbus, OH – On Tuesday, The Buckeye Institute filed its fourth amicus brief in Texas Top Cop Shop v. Bondi, calling upon the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit to affirm the district court’s injunction against the Corporate Transparency Act, which is a sweeping, ill-advised, and misleadingly-named law that gives the government power to collect private information on small business owners.

“The alarming reporting requirements in this law constitute an unconstitutional dragnet federal surveillance program of American small business owners,” said Robert Alt, president and chief executive officer of The Buckeye Institute, who is counsel of record on all four of Buckeye’s briefs in this case. “This Orwellian scheme flies in the face of our First Amendment-protected right to associate, free from the government’s prying eyes.”

In its latest filing, The Buckeye Institute points out that the heavy-handed Corporate Transparency Act is not too far a cry from what was previously found to be unconstitutional in Americans for Prosperity Found. v. Bonta and NAACP v. Alabama. This law—which the federal district court already said is “likely unconstitutional”—requires approximately 32 million small businesses to register with the federal government the names, addresses, dates of birth, and copies of an unexpired passport or driver’s license for each of their beneficial owners. Failure to do so will result in criminal penalties and a $500 fine for every day the report is late, incomplete, or inaccurate.

The Buckeye Institute’s good friends, who are astoundingly capable lawyers at The Center for Individual Rights (CIR), represent Texas Top Cop Shop in this critical case. The Buckeye Institute’s three previous amicus briefs strongly urging courts to uphold a preliminary injunction stopping the federal government from enforcing the chilling law can be found here, here, and here.

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