The U.S. District Court of Northern Alabama recently deemed the Corporate Transparency Act (CTA), which requires companies to disclose sensitive personal information, unconstitutional in a lawsuit brought forth by the National Small Business Association (NSBA) and small-business owner Isaac Winkles. Congress passed the CTA in 2019 in attempts to track and eliminate anonymous shell companies used for money laundering and criminal activity by creating a government database managed by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) and available for access by federal law enforcement agencies.
Robert Wilson Downes and Scott E Ludwig of the American Bar Association record that legislation concerning shell companies has been in the works since 2008, but the 2019 act was the first to be passed. Previous legislation proposals required banks or new state reporting agencies to report to FinCEN the full legal name, date of birth, current residential or business address, and a unique identifying number of all beneficial owners of any business. Under the CTA, all business entities must now file information regarding beneficial owners directly with FinCEN, bar any entity employing more than 20 full-time employees with physical offices in the United States and over $5 million in sales. This exemption rules out very few companies, however, as firms with fewer than 20 workers make up 98% of companies in the United States, making the American economy a small business economy, according to the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council. The term "beneficial owners" has been under constant revision, but the CTA defines them as anyone who owns 25% or more of the equity interests of a company or a single individual whose responsibility involves directly controlling or managing a company.

 
Now that companies themselves must file this information, new penalties have been instituted, with fines for violating parties set at $500 for each day of civil violation or up to two years of imprisonment and up to $10,000 for a criminal violation. These penalties were partially what led the NSBA and Alabama business owner Isaac Winkles to challenge the CTA in 2022, stating that the mandated collection of such information was beyond the power of Congress and that the act places a significant burden on small businesses. This criticism stemmed not only from privacy concerns but also from the fact that many components of the act are not clearly defined, leaving business owners unsure of if and how they should provide this information all the while facing the threat of heavy penalties.
After the U.S. District Court of Northern Alabama deemed the act unconstitutional, John Neiman, legal counsel for the NSBA and Mr. Winkles, first affirmed the intentions of Congress to address money laundering and terrorism financing and then added that because of this ruling, "Congress can find a way to achieve these goals without exceeding the limits on its powers under the Constitution." Todd McCracken, President and CEO of NSBA, echoed Neiman's sentiments, stating, "The judge's decision is an opportunity for Congress to go back to the drawing board and find a solution that will truly protect Americans from bad actors."
Following the announcement, the U.S. Department of Justice and FinCEN formally appealed the court's ruling. FinCEN also announced that it would follow the ruling, but only for small businesses that were NSBA members before March 1, 2024. As of now, there are no other lawsuits against the CTA by small businesses not affiliated with the NSBA.

https://www.nsba.biz/post/press-judge-rules-in-favor-of-nsba-in-lawsuit-over-corporate-transparency-act
https://www.nsba.biz/ctafaqs
https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCOURTS-alnd-5_22-cv-01448/pdf/USCOURTS-alnd-5_22-cv-01448-0.pdf
https://www.americanbar.org/groups/business_law/resources/business-law-today/2021-may/the-corporate-transparency-act/
https://sbecouncil.org/about-us/facts-and-data/