Articles

A Sackett ripple effect?

April 30, 2012 | By DAMIEN SCHIFF

Last week it came to light that EPA Regional Administrator Al Armendariz had made a video several years ago detailing how he enforced various environmental statutes in his district.  Mr. Armendariz stated that EPA’s practice was to select individuals for particularly harsh treatment, to make examples out of them, so that other members of the ...

Articles

Feds and NRDC file responsive briefs in 9th Circuit delta smelt litigation

April 30, 2012 | By PACIFIC LEGAL FOUNDATION

In the continuing 9th Circuit litigation over Judge Wanger’s decision to invalidate the 2008 delta smelt biological opinion, the federal government and the Natural Resources Defense Council on Friday filed briefs in response to earlier filings made by water users and the California Department of Water Resources.  For prior posts on this 9t ...

Articles

PLF files brief in Proposition 13 case

April 27, 2012 | By JENNIFER THOMPSON

Yesterday, PLF filed a friend-of-the-court brief in Young v. Schmidt.  This is the case that challenges Proposition 13’s requirement that all new taxes imposed by the state Legislature pass by a two-thirds vote.  As discussed, Charles Young—the plaintiff in the case and former UCLA chancellor—has argued that this section of Proposition ...

Articles

PLF fighting for the right to earn a living

April 27, 2012 | By TIMOTHY SANDEFUR

I’m in St. Louis today to argue the case of entrepreneur Michael Munie. He’s been in the moving business for 20 years, and his company, ABC Quality Moving, is one of the most popular moving companies in the city. But under state law, he can’t get permission to operate throughout the rest of Missouri unless he … ...

Articles

Court will hear PLF challenge to Missouri’s moving monopoly

April 26, 2012 | By PACIFIC LEGAL FOUNDATION

St. Louis, MO.; April 26, 2012 — Tomorrow morning (April 27), PLF Principal Attorney Timothy Sandefur will present arguments in federal court challenging the constitutionality of a Missouri law that requires an entrepreneur to essentially get permission from his or her own competition before starting a moving company.  Representing St. Louis ...

Articles

Coverage of PLF's Supreme Court brief in school redistricting case

April 26, 2012 | By RALPH KASARDA

The Mainline Media News published an excellent article regarding PLF’s amicus brief in the case Student Does v. Lower Merion School District. As the article explains, the Lower Merion School District in Pennsylvania targeted a neighborhood for redistricting because of its large concentration of African American students.  PLF filed its brief ...

Articles

The recreational fishermen go to court

April 26, 2012 | By JOSHUA THOMPSON

Tomorrow, I will be in court representing the California Association for Recreational Fishing in their lawsuit against the California Department of Fish & Game.  The suit challenges onerous regulations that the Department is imposing on private fish stocking throughout the state.  For example, one of the challenged regulations forces those wh ...

Articles

Talking Sackett

April 26, 2012 | By DAMIEN SCHIFF

Today I’ll be speaking to a number of groups on the Sackett case.  This morning I’ll be speaking through Skype at SUNY Buffalo Law School for the seminar “Beyond Jurisdiction:  The Future of Wetland Law and Policy.”  Later on today, I’ll be speaking at a CLE in Seattle on Sackett and its significance for practitione ...

Articles

States resisting the feds—immigration and Obamacare

April 25, 2012 | By TIMOTHY SANDEFUR

The Supreme Court today heard oral arguments about Arizona’s efforts to crack down on illegal immigration. That state’s law gives police officers the duty to check identification and take other steps to enforce federal immigration laws which, the state argues, the federal officers have left unenforced. The Obama Administration argues th ...