Mass. Installs Spyware on Androids; NCLA Calls to Restore Congress’ Power to Set Safety Standards

NCLA Files Class-Action Against Massachusetts for Auto-Installing Covid Spyware on 1 Million Phones

The Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH) worked with Google to auto-install spyware on the smartphones of more than one million Commonwealth residents, without their knowledge or consent, in a misguided effort to combat Covid-19. Such brazen disregard for civil liberties violates the United States and Massachusetts Constitutions and cannot stand. NCLA has filed a class-action lawsuit, Wright v. Massachusetts Department of Public Health, et al., challenging DPH’s covert installation of a Covid tracing app that tracks and records the movement and personal contacts of Android mobile device users without owners’ permission or awareness.

Mark discusses NCLA’s new case on government tracking.

Amicus Brief Calls on 6th Circuit to Restore Congress’ Power to Set Safety Standards

NCLA has filed an amicus curiae brief in Allstates Refractory Contractors LLC v. Walsh, et al., challenging the constitutionality of the Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Act of 1970. NCLA’s brief asks the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit to decide that the OSH Act unlawfully transfers lawmaking power—specifically, the legislative power to promulgate permanent “safety standards”—by authorizing the Secretary of Labor to promulgate, modify, or revoke any occupational safety standard he deems “reasonably necessary or appropriate.”

Mark discusses NCLA’s amicus brief in Allstates Refractory Contractors v. Walsh.