Articles

by Timothy Sandefur Pacific Legal Foundation filed a lawsuit yesterday against the city of Cotati, California, for a city ordinance that violates the property rights of home builders by forcing them to provide price-controlled housing for the public in exchange for permission to build. You can read more about it here. When property owner Michael & ...

Today at the Volokh Conspiracy Jonathan Adler pointed to his new commentary at the Resources for the Future, "Perverse Incentives and the Endangered Species Act."  His article is a short but important discussion on the lack of incentives for private landowners to protect endangered species, which in turn makes it more difficult for ...

In response to Pacific Legal Foundation's challenge to the United Fish and Wildlife Service's decision to list the polar bear as a threatened species, the Mother Jones Blog has declared that "hunting season is open on polar bears' ESA listing."  Mother Jones takes issue with PLF's contentions that the studies used in ...

From an article in the Kansas City Business Journal: Spencer Thomson, a lawyer at Husch Blackwell Sanders LLP, reported during the Economic Development Corp. of Kansas City's July 25 meeting that $200,000 had been raised, mostly from the St. Louis area, to have lawyers scour the petitions for invalid signatures. "If that doesn't work, ...

PLF Vice President M. David Stilring's op-ed on forest management and wildfires is available at the Eureka Reporter. The op-ed notes how the listing of the northern spotted owl under the Endangered Species Act made commercial logging more difficult, leading to overcrowded forests and a dangerous fire hazard. … ...

Last December, the U.S. District Court for the District of Idaho concluded that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's 1/6/05 12-Month Finding on the sage grouse, which concluded that listing of the species was not warranted, was arbitrary and capricious.  That decision is available here. While FWS reconsiders the sage grouse's status, ...

Yesterday the Ninth Circuit issued a decision in Center for Biological Diversity v. Marina Point Development Co., 9th Cir. Doc. No. 06-56193 (filed Aug. 6, 2008). In Marina Point, environmentalist plaintiffs filed citizen suit actions under the Clean Water Act (CWA) and the Endangered Species Act (ESA) against a developer defendant, contending that ...

The Ventura County Star today reports that California Coastal Commission has postponed a decision on whether to allow a proposed 45-megawatt peaker power plant at Mandalay Beach in Oxnard.  Among those who voiced their opposition to the much-needed power plant was — not surprisingly — Commissioner Sara Wan, who stated in typical a ...

Today the Ninth Circuit dismissed the appeal of Alsea Valley Alliance (represented by PLF) in Trout Unlimited v. Lohn, a case out of the District of Oregon concerning the National Marine Fisheries Service’s 2006 decision to withdraw its proposal to list the Oregon Coast coho under the Endangered Species Act. The district court had ruled R ...