Articles

Briefing complete in challenge to Plan Bay Area

May 01, 2014 | By DAMIEN SCHIFF

Today, we filed our last brief in the trial court before the hearing in our challenge, on behalf of the nonprofit Bay Area Citizens, to the adoption of Plan Bay Area.  (We filed our opening motion in March, and the respondent agencies filed their opposition brief in April).  The case is set for a hearing … ...

Articles

What did the Founders think the Origination Clause meant?

May 01, 2014 | By TIMOTHY SANDEFUR

Priscilla Zotti and Nicholas Schmitz’s new article, The Origination Clause: Meaning, Precedent, and Theory from the 12th Century to the 21st Century, in the latest issue of the British Journal of American Legal Studies, has been posted online. Click here to download the issue and flip forward to page 71. Zotti and Schmitz present a … ...

Articles

US Senator Vitter features PLF's Duarte case on Environment and Public Works Committee blog

May 01, 2014 | By TONY FRANCOIS

Today United States Senator Vitter (R-La), Ranking Member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, featured PLF’s case on behalf of John Duarte and Duarte Nursery against the Corps of Engineers on one of the Committee’s blogs.  Senator Vitter notes that this recent case in California paints a picture of what more Americans ...

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Join PLF tomorrow at Duarte Nursery's annual Friends Day open house

May 01, 2014 | By TONY FRANCOIS

Tomorrow several of us will be at Duarte Nursery‘s annual Friends Day on the nursery grounds in Hughson, California, at 1555 Baldwin Road, just outside Modesto.  The event runs from 9am to 2pm, with plenty of interesting things to see and learn about agriculture in California, good food, and even a brief update on Duarte … ...

Articles

President's weekly report — May 2, 2014

May 02, 2014 | By ROB RIVETT

Obamacare and the Constitution Next week we will have oral argument in Sissel v. Department of Health and Human Services before the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.  This case is our challenge to Obamacare, where we are arguing that because the “individual mandate” is a tax it violates the “Origination Clause” of the Constit ...

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George Will on PLF’s Obamacare lawsuit

May 03, 2014 | By TIMOTHY SANDEFUR

George Will’s latest column features our lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Obamacare, which we’ll be arguing in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday. “In June 2012,” writes Will, “a Supreme Court majority accepted a, shall we say, creative reading of the ACA by Chief Justice John Roberts…that the ...

Articles

Barnum Timber Co. v. EPA, standing to sue, and the Clean Water Act

May 05, 2014 | By DAMIEN SCHIFF

Last last month, after more than a decade of litigation, we were able to settle amicably our lawsuit on behalf of Barnum Timber Co. against the EPA over the agency’s designation of Redwood Creek as an impaired water under Section 303(d) of the Clean Water Act. Interesting in that, also last month, the District Court … ...

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A pretextual climate change report?

May 06, 2014 | By DAMIEN SCHIFF

This week, the Obama Administration released a National Climate Assessment that predicts dire consequences for the nation’s economy owing to global warming.  Here at Pacific Legal Foundation, we take no position on the scientific side of the climate change debate, but we do strongly believe that climate change should not be used as a pretext ...

Articles

Obama Administration urges further discrimination in the wake of Schuette

May 06, 2014 | By JOSHUA THOMPSON

In its crusade to make America a racially polarized nation, the Obama Administration has had a tough couple of years.  Despite repeated pleas for the continued use of racial preferences, and its crusade to inject disparate impact into every facet of American life, both the people and the the courts aren’t biting. In Fisher and Shelby Count ...