Articles

New Jersey Local Government Steals Private Property

October 22, 2009 | By PACIFIC LEGAL FOUNDATION

Author: Luke Wake A couple in New Jersey is turning to their Supreme Court for relief after an appellate decision found that their property had been "taken by inverse condemnation." That legal conclusion flies in the face of established law. Inverse condemnation is a cause of action for an aggrieved landowner against a government when &# ...

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Hey, whadda ya know?

October 21, 2009 | By TIMOTHY SANDEFUR

Author: Timothy Sandefur This is unintentionally hilarious: How can we most effectively weaken property rights…?  Framing property as bundles of rights and forewarning of limitations weakens perceptions of ownership and decreases resistance to subsequent restrictions….  The potential applications of this research to property theory ...

Articles

My Chapman talk on Lochner

October 20, 2009 | By TIMOTHY SANDEFUR

Author: Timothy Sandefur I recently spoke to the Federalist Society at Chapman University School of Law (my alma mater) on the subject of Lochner and of constitutional protections for economic liberty in general. I recorded the talk and you can listen to it here. (It's a big file and takes a while to download.) … ...

Articles

The "diversity" rationale

October 18, 2009 | By JOSHUA THOMPSON

Author: Joshua Thompson Over at The Volokh Conspiracy, Ilya Somin has an interesting post on the justificaiton(s) for race/ethnic preferences at public universities.  He notes how there are two general theories that are held out to justify such preferences: (1) compensatory justice; and (2) promotion of diversity.  He notes how th ...

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PLF files new Proposition 209 lawsuit directly in California Court of Appeal

October 16, 2009 | By JOSHUA THOMPSON

Author: Joshua Thompson PLF filed a lawsuit today against a number of California agencies and officials including Governor Schwarzenegger and Attorney General Brown.  The lawsuit alleges that the recently enacted Assembly Bill 21 (AB 21), grants preferences on the basis of race and sex in public contracting.  You can read PLF' ...

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Atlantic Yards eminent domain case

October 14, 2009 | By TIMOTHY SANDEFUR

Author: Timothy Sandefur Our friend Robert Thomas is liveblogging the oral arguments in New York's important eminent domain case, Goldstein v. New York State Urban Development Corp., over at his blog, inversecondemnation.com. The arguments begin at 2 Eastern, which is about 45 minutes from now. Update: I will be joining in on the live-blogging. ...

Articles

California : the pyrite state

October 13, 2009 | By TIMOTHY SANDEFUR

Author: Timothy Sandefur …or is it Pirate State? A report issued last month by Sanjay Varshney and Dennis Tootelian, professors at the Cal State Sacramento College of Business Administration, finds that the state’s miles of red tape cost Californians $493 billion–that’s billion with a b, which is a third of the state’s ...

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Thoughts on PLF's delta smelt Commerce Clause challenge

October 13, 2009 | By PACIFIC LEGAL FOUNDATION

Author: Brandon Middleton Last week a federal district court in Fresno rejected Pacific Legal Foundation's constitutional challenge to the federal government's devastating delta smelt water restrictions. Even though the delta smelt is a noncommercial species that is found only in California, the court ruled that the U.S. F ...

Articles

PLF victory in Proposition 209 challenge

October 12, 2009 | By JOSHUA THOMPSON

Author: Joshua Thompson Last week, PLF won an important victory for equality under the law in the case of Smith v. California Health and Human Services Agency.  The case challenged Cal. Health & Safety Code §§ 128330(g) & 128345 under Article I, section 31(a) of the California Constitution (often referred to as Proposition 209), whi ...