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The Center for Inquiry is the only organization working to advance reason, science, secularism, and humanist values in public policy, and oppose the influence of religion, dogma, pseudoscience, and superstition. As a leading advocate in these areas, we have assembled a wide network of experts who can address the public policy issues related to our agenda. We bring that network and expertise, and the energy and passion of our grassroots supporters, to have an impact on policy at the state, national, and international levels.

Evidence, facts, and the scientific method are being challenged in the United States today as never before, and the secular foundations of government are being uprooted in favor of religious privilege. While a number of organizations lobby and work to defend science politically, only one organization works to defend reason in all important areas of human endeavor: the Center for Inquiry.


Office of Consumer Protection from Pseudoscience


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The Office of Consumer Protection from Pseudoscience seeks to fight back against the harms caused by quacks, crooks, and charlatans, big and small. Through this new part of CFI, we will be bringing legal action and issuing warning letters, seeking to educate and inform the public and legislators and pressuring regulators, both state and federal, to properly protect the public from the harms of scam products and “treatments.”

Legal Department


The Legal Department furthers the Center for Inquiry’s mission through investigation, litigation, by filing amicus briefs in cases involving First Amendment rights, reproductive freedom, assistance in dying, consumer protection, and other issues of importance to the Center and its supporters. Where appropriate, the Center or its affiliates will file their own lawsuit.

CFI is putting a particular focus on consumer protection lawsuits. Billions of dollars every year are fraudulently extracted from unwitting consumers across the country to line the pockets of those who peddle snake oil and pseudoscientific nonsense. CFI legal department stands ready to file suit against sellers of homeopathy, psychics, naturopaths, and faith healers where their claims run contrary to the basic laws of science, and their flimflammery fleeces the general public.

CFI seeks to use the legal system to establish precedent that can then create fundamental change in society. Winning secular celebrant cases creates momentum to pressure other states to permit secular celebrants. Winning consumer protection lawsuits against retail behemoths like Walmart and CVS not only forces those companies to change their policies across the nation, or face multiple suits from the plaintiffs’ bar, it also sends a message to every other retailer that they must change too. Winning the right for mature minors to be vaccinated in one state will quickly lead to all mature minors in the United States having that option.

Staff


Richard Conn

General Counsel

Aaron Green

Staff Counsel

Contact Us


E-mail: [email protected]

Telephone: (202) 734-6494 ext. 203
Fax: (202) 733-5292

Refer a Case


If you have experienced discrimination because you are nonreligious or you believe that your constitutional rights are in jeopardy, or if you have suffered harm or been deceived by pseudoscience at any level, please contact us here. Be aware that submission of this information to the Legal Department does not guarantee that we can assist you. Contact a private attorney promptly as well as asking us. CFI does not undertake representation of individuals involved in employment disputes.