PLF files amicus brief against Louisiana’s attempt to take private land for profit

December 12, 2025 | By ALESSANDRA CARUSO

In 2024, the Plaquemines Port Harbor & Terminal District—a political subdivision of the state of Louisiana—launched a troubling campaign against a property owner by attempting to seize private land on the cheap via eminent domain, lease it to a private company, and pocket the profit. On December 5, Pacific Legal Foundation filed an amicu ...

Reason : They Built a Hemp Business in Good Faith but Washington Is About To Crush It

December 12, 2025 | By BRITTANY HUNTER

As the Senate prepared to vote on the funding bill to reopen the federal government earlier this month, Sen. Rand Paul (R–Ky.) warned that passing the legislation would "regulate the hemp industry to death." Buried deep inside the continuing resolution was a provision that would completely reverse nearly seven years of industry progress—and pot ...

Proxy discrimination necessitates heightened scrutiny

December 11, 2025 | By RACHEL CULVER

Two years ago, the Supreme Court struck down Harvard and UNC's discriminatory racial preferences as unconstitutional, banning affirmative action in college admissions. But in the wake of that decision, schools and government entities often resorted to discrimination by proxy, including proxies for race like ZIP Code and income. In a new law revi ...

Victory after two decades : Florida Supreme Court upholds victory for Shands family 

December 11, 2025 | By COLLIN CALLAHAN

After 20 long years of legal battles, the Shands family has won their fight for justice. Last week, the Florida Supreme Court declined to review a lower court decision that vindicated the property rights of Rodney Shands and his siblings, paving the way for the family to finally make use of the island that bears their family name. In 1956, Dr. R ...

More Americans are facing Fourth Amendment violations at the border

December 10, 2025 | By RACHEL CULVER

The Fourth Amendment provides that people shall "be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures," and no warrant shall be issued without "probable cause." Yet, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers routinely violate both provisions, acting in accordance with a 2018 Directive that requ ...

Fourth Amendment rights should not depend on your proximity to the border

December 10, 2025 | By BRITTANY HUNTER

International travel can be a stressful experience. Between remembering passports, language barriers at foreign airports, and customs, it's enough to frustrate even the most seasoned travelers. After a long journey, there is no greater relief than landing safely back in America, clearing customs, and heading home. But that relief turned to horro ...

From Steinway to sawdust : The fight to save Alaska’s last mill

December 10, 2025 | By KATE POMEROY

For decades, specialized wood from Alaska's Tongass National Forest has shaped the sound of Steinway pianos and Martin guitars and strengthened everything from NASA wind tunnels to helicopter blades. Much of that wood comes from one family-owned mill: Viking Lumber on Prince of Wales Island. Now, a broken promise from Washington bureaucrats threate ...

Orange County Register : Cure homelessness with more housing, not more subsidies

December 08, 2025 | By MARK MILLER

This Thanksgiving, millions of Americans will gather around tables filled with food, but millions of others will have no table at all. Homelessness has surged in many major American cities, even in a nation overflowing with wealth and land. The problem is not that we have run out of space, materials, or compassion. It is that we have surrounded the ...

Following PLF’s Discrimination Suit, Pritzker Signs Bill Ending Illinois’ Race-Exclusive Scholarship

December 05, 2025 | By ALESSANDRA CARUSO

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker recently signed legislation rewriting the state's scholarship rules—and abruptly ending a decades-old race-exclusive program. The change will moot a lawsuit led by a student member of the American Alliance for Equal Rights and represented by the Pacific Legal Foundation at no cost. The law, House Bill 3065, which took ...