Articles

Hillsdale College has put together what looks to be an excellent anthology of sources for understanding the U.S. Constitution. You can see the table of contents here. For our readers who would like to explore some of the deeper historical and philosophical background of the Constitution, this looks like a good place to start. … ...

Today is the birthday of the greatest lawyer who ever lived, Sir Edward Coke. Lord Coke, who served as Queen Elizabeth I’s attorney general, was one of the founding fathers of the common law itself—one of the people who helped form the idea that courts should collect and review previous decisions to build up a … ...

I will be testifying to the Washington Senate Environment Committee today on SB 6369, a bill that would amend the State Environmental Policy Act.  SEPA is Washington’s “environmental checklist” law.  It requires the government and developers to identify the environmental effects of proposed projects. SB 6369 would add a new sect ...

In McBurney v. Young, issued today, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a plaintiff’s argument that a Virginia law interfered with his right to engage in his trade, but reaffirmed that this right is protected by the Privileges And Immunities Clause of Article IV (precursor to the Fourteenth Amendment’s Privileges or Immunities ...

PLF filed a brief today in CTIA v. San Francisco, CTIA’s challenge to San Francisco’s alarmist cell-phone warning scheme. San Francisco adopted an ordinance in 2010, modified in 2011, which requires cell phone retailers to post warning signs, distribute a “fact sheet”, and affix on cell phones warning labels that all include ...

Here is PLF attorney Ralph Kasarda’s letter to the editor.  For more information on this important Supreme Court case go here. … ...

One of the most important provisions in the Endangered Species Act is the requirement that, when the Fish and Wildlife Service determines whether to list a species or to designate its critical habitat, the agency must use the “best scientific data available.”  This standard makes sense.  After all, no one would want an agency delibera ...

Sometimes lost in the minutiae and arcana of environmental and administrative law is the fact that, ultimately, we’re arguing about whether someone’s property can be taken from them, or devalued, or made entirely unusable, because of government or administrative fiat.  Kudos to Carla Garrison of The Washington Times for reminding ever ...

From our friends at Reason, Burton and Anita Folsom discuss their new book on the New Deal: … ...