Articles

Landowners need not resort to legislative process to ripen takings claims

May 03, 2010 | By PACIFIC LEGAL FOUNDATION

Author: Luke A. Wake In December we filed a brief in Howard v. San Diego arguing that a landowner is not required to seek a general plan amendment in order to ripen a takings claim, and on Friday we recieved a positive decision from the Fourth Appellate District on that issue. In this case a … ...

Articles

"Cape Wind farm suers line up"

May 03, 2010 | By PACIFIC LEGAL FOUNDATION

Author: Brandon Middleton No surprise here, just another alternative energy project that has finally been approved, but will still be subject to exhaustive litigation.  More here. … ...

Articles

"Peer review" – It's not what you think

May 03, 2010 | By PACIFIC LEGAL FOUNDATION

Author: Reed Hopper There is a fundamental difference between research science and regulatory science–-time and money. While research scientists are generally free to pursue a line of inquiry to wherever it leads however long it takes, regulatory scientists do not have that luxury. To the contrary, to meet administrative deadlines and budgets, th ...

Articles

Diversity quandry : Woman or African-American?

May 04, 2010 | By PACIFIC LEGAL FOUNDATION

Author: Joshua Thompson New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is drawing some heat for failing to re-appoint Justice John Wallace to New Jersey's Supreme Court.  You see, Justice Wallace is an African-American, so Governor Christie's decision is receiving criticism "because Wallace would at least diversify the bench." Of course ...

Articles

The smelt, Ogden Nash, and the Commerce Clause

May 04, 2010 | By PACIFIC LEGAL FOUNDATION

Author:  Damien M. Schiff I found myself rummaging though an old anthology of Ogden Nash's comic verse, and found this delightful poem.  If only Nash were an authority for why regulation of the Delta smelt is beyond Congress' power over interstate commerce! THE SMELT Oh, why does man pursue the smelt?It has no valuable pelt,It ...

Articles

Summer reading list—for PLF’s law clerks

May 05, 2010 | By PACIFIC LEGAL FOUNDATION

Author: Timothy Sandefur Law students looking to help defend individual rights and limited government often work with the Pacific Legal Foundation for the summer, through our annual summer law clerk program. In addition to preparing research, helping draft documents, review potential cases, and other tasks, our clerks participate in a weekly discus ...

Articles

Coverage of Coral Construction argument

May 05, 2010 | By PACIFIC LEGAL FOUNDATION

Author: Joshua Thompson Yesterday PLF's Sharon Browne argued before the California Supreme Court in Coral Construction v. City and County of San Francisco.  The court was deciding on the constitutionality of Proposition 209 — California's landmark constitutional amendment that prohibits both discrimination and preferences on the ...

Articles

Congress’ vague laws

May 05, 2010 | By PACIFIC LEGAL FOUNDATION

Author: Timothy Sandefur The Heritage Foundation has released an important new report on the vagueness of many of the criminal laws that Congress has enacted. Laws that are imprecisely worded are, of course, a great danger to innocent people who might find themselves in violation of a law without realizing it. But they’re also dangerous R ...

Articles

Does The State Give Us Our Rights?

May 05, 2010 | By PACIFIC LEGAL FOUNDATION

Author: Timothy Sandefur My latest law review article, Does The State Create The Market–And Should It Pursue Efficiency? has been published by the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy. You can download it here. … ...