Articles

Former Fish and Wildlife Director comments on wolf delisting

January 04, 2010 | By PACIFIC LEGAL FOUNDATION

Author:  Damien M. Schiff Jamie Rappaport Clark, the Service's director from 1997 to 2001, had this oped in last Friday's Washington Post, excoriating the Obama Administration and Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar for going ahead, in March of 2009, with a Bush Administration proposal to delist the Northern Rockies "dist ...

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PLF asks 9th Circuit to reconsider controversial SoCal landfill decision

January 05, 2010 | By PACIFIC LEGAL FOUNDATION

Author: Brandon Middleton Nearly twenty years ago, an Ontario, California company (Kaiser Ventures) proposed the development of a large landfill that would help to address Southern California's critical need for landfill space. But Kaiser didn't just propose an ordinary landfill — instead, it planned on completing the first landfill t ...

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Endangered Species Act, flawed federal court decision used to stop alternative energy project

January 06, 2010 | By PACIFIC LEGAL FOUNDATION

Author: Brandon Middleton Recall that last month a federal court halted a West Virginia wind energy project based on threats the project posed to the endangered Indiana bat. The court's decision was issued despite the facts that an Indiana bat had never been seen on the project site and that the bat caves of concern … ...

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Saving the Constitution from lawyers?

January 06, 2010 | By PACIFIC LEGAL FOUNDATION

Author: R. S. Radford In his 2008 book, Saving the Constitution from Lawyers, Robert J. Spitzer tackles an issue that troubles most thoughtful Americans. The Constitution is interpreted every day to mean things that never occurred to the Founders, and is often applied in ways that seem inconsistent with, or even contrary to, the concerns … ...

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NBA's Nets are costing fans more than just a wasted basketball season

January 06, 2010 | By PACIFIC LEGAL FOUNDATION

Author: Nicholas M. Gieseler The 3-31 record posted thus far by the New Jersey Nets isn't the only thing making some Nets fans cringe this basketball season.  For Brooklyn resident Daniel Goldstein, the grief the Nets are causing him has nothing to do with jump shots and rebounds.  Mr. Goldstein and his family are among ...

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ESA reformist seeks return to congress

January 07, 2010 | By PACIFIC LEGAL FOUNDATION

Author: Nicholas M. Gieseler The San Francisco Chronicle reported yesterday that former U.S. Congressman Richard Pombo will run for a seat in the next Congressional election.  Those who remember Pombo most likely remember his 2005 attempt to reform the Endangered Species Act by eliminating some of its inefficiencies and creating a more balanc ...

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Small business owner fights to keep his livelihood and home

January 07, 2010 | By PACIFIC LEGAL FOUNDATION

Author: Luke A. Wake The Fifth Amendment provides that private property shall not be taken except for a public purpose. Yet, in the infamous Kelo v. New London decision, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the Fifth Amendment does not preclude the government from taking private property for the benefit of private interests. This opened … ...

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Chicago to scrap police entrance exams?

January 08, 2010 | By PACIFIC LEGAL FOUNDATION

Author: Joshua Thompson Apparently Chicago is contemplating doing away with entrance exams for police officers altogether.  It seems as though the police department is worried that their tests run the risk of disparate impact lawsuits, when the certified results, despite painstaking measures to assure objectivity, result in ...

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The flap over "green" energy and "green" goals intensifies

January 11, 2010 | By PACIFIC LEGAL FOUNDATION

Author: Reed Hopper Reuters reports "The U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) on Monday issued guidelines to protect the sage grouse which state officials and environmentalists say will effectively preclude wind power development in about 20 percent of the sprawling state. The BLM move bolstered Wyoming's steps to identify key ...