Articles

Can the Hawaii economy survive the state's anti-property rights environment?

March 01, 2011 | By PACIFIC LEGAL FOUNDATION

Author:  Paul J. Beard II The short answer is:  "No!"  Robert Thomas, the Managing Attorney for PLF's Hawaii Center, has two excellent blog posts discussing the extent to which Hawaii's land-use laws are strangling the island's economy, and revealing the unsettling fact that the Hawaii Supreme Court fav ...

Articles

How consistent is the Left's Scalia-Thomas hatred?

March 02, 2011 | By PACIFIC LEGAL FOUNDATION

Author:  Damien M. Schiff It has been common for some time among the legal Left to lambaste the Roberts Court's conservative wing, especially Justices Scalia and Thomas, for decisions that allegedly reflect more their personal preferences than the laws' dictates.  That criticism seems to me at least to be heightened in part beca ...

Articles

PLF submits comments on proposed DBE Program in Maryland

March 02, 2011 | By PACIFIC LEGAL FOUNDATION

Author: Joshua Thompson PLF and the Center for Equal Opportunity recently submitted these comments to the Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission.  The Sanitary Commission is considering enacting a contracting program that grants preferences to businesses on the basis of race.  Here is a snippet from the letter: At every step of the con ...

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Yet another sign that the Obama administration really isn't "pro-business"

March 02, 2011 | By PACIFIC LEGAL FOUNDATION

Author: Brandon Middleton Instapundit linked today to this article by James Pethokoukis, in which Pethokoukis explains why 3M president and CEO George Buckley isn't fond of the trend to label President Obama as "pro-business": Buckley has good reason to wonder aloud about Obama’s pre-election year conversion from nemesis to frie ...

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Help us stop EPA from acting illegally

March 02, 2011 | By PACIFIC LEGAL FOUNDATION

Author:    Ted Hadzi-Antich Carbon Dioxide is a ubiquitous natural substance.  Humans exhale it, and trees inhale it.  Yet the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), along with the United States Department of Transportation (DOT), has decided to regulate carbon dioxide because of fears i ...

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Judge Vinson stays Florida Obamacare ruling

March 03, 2011 | By PACIFIC LEGAL FOUNDATION

Author: Timothy Sandefur Judge Vinson, the Florida federal judge who issued one of the decisions finding Obamacare unconstitutional, has now issued a new order temporarily staying his earlier decision pending review by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. This was because, in spite of Vinson’s ruling, some states and the federal government were ...

Articles

Will the Commission kibosh another fireworks display?

March 03, 2011 | By PACIFIC LEGAL FOUNDATION

Author:  Damien M. Schiff Over the last several years, the California Coastal Commission has been asserting jurisdiction, under the Coastal Act, over coastal fireworks displays.  Recently, PLF attorneys represented the Gualala Festivals Committee in an ultimately unsuccessful suit challenging the Commission's jurisdiction over ...

Articles

Redevelopment agencies stomped on the little people for too long

March 03, 2011 | By PACIFIC LEGAL FOUNDATION

Author: Timothy Sandefur Robert Silverstein, one of California's leading eminent domain attorneys, has an article in today's Sacramento Bee about the state's abusive redevelopment laws. Excerpt: Redevelopment today has mostly devolved into an outlandish misuse of government power. And when eminent domain is used to forcibly take private ...

Articles

Is the Akaka Bill finally dead?

March 03, 2011 | By PACIFIC LEGAL FOUNDATION

Author: Joshua Thompson Loyal followers of the Liberty Blog will remember that back in December the lame-duck Congress tried to push through a bill that would have recognized Hawaiians as an Indian tribe.  This, in turn, would have opened up the ability of Hawaiians to be awarded preferences in a wide-array of government programs. ...