Articles

Are governments circumventing the "just compensation" requirement?

March 03, 2014 | By JONATHAN WOOD

Reason‘s A. Barton Hinkle has an article reporting on a clever — some would say cruel — scheme to abuse property owners that the Virginia Department of Transportation has developed. What’s the scheme? First, the agency announces that it is going to take your private property. Then it assesses the value of the taken property ...

Articles

The road to serfdom : not just a book, it's a California Assembly bill

March 03, 2014 | By TONY FRANCOIS

Liberty Blog readers are probably familiar with F.A. Hayek’s classic The Road to Serfdom.  In it, Hayek warns against the unavoidable outcomes of central planning, including the loss of individual freedom and the failure of any but the most rudimentary and oppressive plans to deliver the stated goals, all while destroying prosperity and crea ...

Articles

PLF seeks to tear down Nevada’s “Keep Out” sign

March 05, 2014 | By ANASTASIA BODEN

Yesterday, PLF attorneys filed a civil rights lawsuit on behalf of Troy Castillo challenging a Nevada law that prevents out-of-state entrepreneurs from competing across state lines.  The law requires private investigators to keep a “principal place of business” in the state, essentially putting up a “Keep Out” sign at the N ...

Articles

We’re blowing out the candles!

March 05, 2014 | By ROB RIVETT

On this date 41 years ago, Pacific Legal Foundation was founded in Sacramento as America’s first freedom-based public interest legal organization. Drawing inspiration from then-Governor Ronald Reagan, several members of his senior staff left public service to establish PLF. “On March 5, 1973, government regulators found a foe; mainstrea ...

Articles

Sea otter case dismissed

March 06, 2014 | By JONATHAN WOOD

This week, a federal district court judge dismissed a challenge brought by fishermen to federal bureaucrats’ decision to illegally expose them to criminal prosecution for continuing to pursue their occupation.The court accepted the government’s argument that, despite the fact that the challenge was brought less than a year after the ru ...

Articles

"Feral" pig case ends in Michigan

March 07, 2014 | By JENNIFER THOMPSON

Nearly two years ago, we asked whether it was lawful to own a pig in Michigan after a state agency issued an “Invasive Species Order”—ostensibly aimed at outlawing the ownership of “feral” pigs—but drafted so broadly and vaguely so as to cover barn-yard animals.  Now we finally have an answer: it depends on whether the ...

Articles

What is substantive unconscionability?

March 07, 2014 | By DEBORAH LA FETRA

The California Supreme Court would like to know!  That court recently issued an unusual order in Sanchez v. Valencia Holding Co. LLC, asking for supplemental briefing from parties and amici on how it should define “substantive unconscionability.”  This case arose when Gil Sanchez bought a used Mercedes for $54,000.  He signed a stand ...

Articles

President’s weekly report — March 7, 2014

March 07, 2014 | By ROB RIVETT

Economic Liberty Project — Nevada Says “NO” to Out-of-State Private Eyes We filed our complaint this week in Castillo v. Ingram , challenging Nevada’s new rules that forbid private investigators from working in that state unless they have a brick and mortar office located within Nevada.  Troy Castillo put in 29 years of ser ...

Articles

What happens outside of Vegas must stay outside of Vegas?

March 10, 2014 | By ANASTASIA BODEN

As we noted last week, PLF is challenging a Nevada law that requires private investigators to keep a “principal place of business” in the state.  This law essentially puts up a “keep out” sign at the Nevada border by making it more expensive for P.I.s who live outside the state to compete with Nevada residents.  As we a ...