Articles

Prof. Amar, you say that like its a bad thing!

June 29, 2012 | By TIMOTHY SANDEFUR

“This opinion reinvigorates a stricter understanding of all the powers of government,” Professor Amar said. “There’s a renewed interest in limits to federal power. The language about inactivity suggests that any laws that purport to order conduct, including existing laws, have the potential to be challenged. This could becom ...

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President's weekly roundup

June 29, 2012 | By ROB RIVETT

Health Care Reform The Supreme Court upheld Obamacare, aka the “Affordable Care Act” on Thursday in National Federation of Independent Businesses v. Sebelius.  There are silver linings here, in that a majority of the justices clearly understand that there are limits to the Commerce Clause’s authorization of power to the federal g ...

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Coastal Commission czar's "legacy of zealotry" exposed

June 29, 2012 | By PAUL BEARD

Californians continue to debate the legacy of the late Peter Douglas, the principal architect and former Executive Director of the California Coastal Commisison. If you’ve followed our work, you know our views about the Commission under Douglas’s leadership.  Sacramento writer, Lloyd Billingsley, gives us his, in this thoughtful opin ...

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The other mistake the Supreme Court made yesterday

June 29, 2012 | By DEBORAH LA FETRA

Largely lost in the hullaballoo yesterday, the Supreme Court dismissed First American v. Edwards as “improvidently granted.”  It did not give any reasons for the dismissal. This case asked whether a plaintiff who suffered no injury whatsoever from a defendant’s technical violation of statute could pursue a class action in federal ...

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Supreme Court denies review of Hawaii's race-based property tax scheme

June 29, 2012 | By RALPH KASARDA

The U.S. Supreme Court today denied a petition for writ of certiorari in a case concerning Hawaii’s discriminatory race-based property tax scheme that forces non-preferred races to pay a higher tax rate.  The case is called Corboy v. Louie. Here’s the background.  In 1921, when Hawaii was still a U.S. territory and not a state, Con ...

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George Will : Obamacare decision is a win for conservatives

June 28, 2012 | By TIMOTHY SANDEFUR

Columnist George Will explains why “Conservatives distraught about the survival of the individual mandate are missing the considerable consolation prize they won when the Supreme Court rejected a constitutional rationale for the mandate — Congress’s rationale — that was pregnant with rampant statism.” … ...

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PLF's Timothy Sandefur on Los Angeles' John & Ken Show at 3

June 28, 2012 | By TIMOTHY SANDEFUR

I’ll be speaking with KFI radio’s John & Ken in about a half an hour about today’s decision in the Obamacare cases. You can listen online here. … ...

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A victory for Obamacare, but…

June 28, 2012 | By PACIFIC LEGAL FOUNDATION

youtubehttp://youtu.be/gyGC6oFwh_o/youtube … ...

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Obamacare dissent, an ode to the Constitution

June 28, 2012 | By PAUL BEARD

Today’s dissenters from the Court’s Obamacare decision wax poetically about political philosophy—in particular, about the importance of our constitutional structure of government to the preservation of individual liberty.  In the last substantive paragraph of their dissent, Justices Scalia, Kennedy, Thomas, and Alito conclude: Th ...