The woman who sued to enforce the Declaration’s promise of equality
The Declaration of Independence's bold proclamation that "all men are created equal" was the foundation on which the pillars of American ethos were built. Its principle endured, later shaping the Fourteenth Amendment's guarantee of equality before the law. Self-evident as this truth may be, how these words would be lifted from the parchment and ...
Does the Constitution protect a cancer patient’s right to call his doctor?
When Jun Abell was just 18 months old, he was diagnosed with pineoblastoma—a rare, aggressive brain tumor. After multiple surgeries and rounds of chemotherapy, he was referred to Dr. Shannon MacDonald, a leading pediatric radiation oncologist at Massachusetts General Hospital. Jun's family moved to Boston for two months while he underwent proton ...
Introducing Free to Flourish
Last summer, Pacific Legal Foundation launched our Environment and Natural Resources (ENR) practice—doubling down on our 50+ years of success as America's leading defender of property rights and environmental common sense. With this new practice, our mission is threefold: Defend the freedom to use both public and private land productively ...
Montana man fights zoning law to house his veteran brothers
Clancy Kenck fought the State of Montana for nearly three years before he was allowed to build a duplex for his two brothers. Still, he'll tell you he got the easy end of the deal. Clancy was born and raised in Missoula, Montana, along with three brothers and three sisters. His parents instilled a sense of self-reliance and patriotism in their c ...
A federal agency prosecuted an Oklahoma baby product company for four years and came up empty
In 2015, a daycare worker left an infant unsupervised with a bottle in his mouth for 45 minutes, flouting daycare policy, state regulation, and the explicit warnings on the product the baby was placed in. Tragically, the infant died. The daycare lost its license and shut down. Three years later, another infant was placed on an adult bed, in betw ...
Minnesota’s batty restriction on timber operations
Over a third of Minnesota is forested, and the state's forest products industry ranks as its fifth-largest manufacturing sector by payroll employment. Citizens' ability to use these resources, however, has been unconstitutionally restricted by a state and federal government scheme to protect three bat subspecies. Two of these species were listed as ...
New report : California Coastal Commission has collected nearly $50 million from property owners since 2016
The California Coastal Commission has long been described as the most powerful land use authority in the United States. A new PLF report puts some hard numbers behind that reputation. The Power of Punishment: How the California Coastal Commission's Increased Enforcement Power Affects Property Rights examines the Commission's enforcement activity ...
The state wants to track lobstermen’s every move. One is asking the Supreme Court to end it.
Everyone in Vinalhaven knows two things: the weather and the price of a lobster — $6. Ten miles off the coast of Maine, this rugged outcropping of fewer than 1,300 people is one of the cradles of the New England lobster industry. Dark evergreens cling to the hillsides above its blue coves; granite cliffs take the full force of the North Atlant ...
Washington activist continues legal challenge to unpayable fines
Tim Eyman is trapped by an unpayable debt that's growing daily. Between fines, attorney fees, and ever-increasing interest, the State of Washington expects him to find and turn over $8 million. Since he can't, the State is adding $700,000 to that total every year. Eyman has been fighting this unconstitutionally excessive fine in the Washington c ...