Caleb Kruckenberg joined PLF’s separation of powers practice in 2021. He represents people across the country who want to improve their lives through innovation and hard work but are stymied by the government. From defending unfounded government investigations to challenging rules or statutes that violate core civil liberties, he strives to enforce structural limits on the separate branches of government.
As a former criminal defense lawyer, Caleb has a keen appreciation for what “liberty” really means. He has seen firsthand how our justice system is designed for maximum punishment while criminal laws are written so broadly that, as Harvey Silverglate said in his infamous book Three Felonies A Day, they become a “tyrannical trap for the unwary innocent.”
Innovation, creativity, and determination were the foundation for America’s greatest successes. But those same traits are the ones most despised by self-sustaining bureaucracies that thrive on conformity, fear, and hesitancy. It’s not surprising that Caleb regularly represents entrepreneurs who have been targeted by administrative agencies just because of their success.
Caleb believes that the best way to defeat abusive governmental involvement in our lives is to overwhelm it with the same entrepreneurial spirit embodied by his clients. He is not afraid to take risks, and, above all, he is relentless when the government is on the other side of his clients’ interests.
Before coming to PLF, Caleb worked as a prosecutor, a public defender, a lobbyist for a national advocacy organization and, most recently, an impact litigator fighting the administrative state. He defeated the SEC in a jury trial, challenged an ATF regulation before the Tenth Circuit, sitting en banc, and sued seven U.S. attorneys general. He even convinced Chief Judge Timothy Tymkovich to describe Chevron deference as the “Lord Voldemort of administrative law.”
He graduated cum laude from Temple University Beasley School of Law in Philadelphia, where he was the lead articles editor for the Temple Law Review. Caleb also attended the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, where he studied figurative painting.
Caleb is a member of the bar only in the states of New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and D.C.
