Articles

Can preventing take (of endangered species) cause a take (of private property)? That is the question I will be answering tomorrow morning, along with a distinguished panel, in our special session on Water Rights and Regulatory Takings at the 2014 Annual Water Resources Conference, sponsored by the American Water Resources Association.  I will be ...

Last term, the Supreme Court considered a petition to hear New Jersey’s challenge to a federal law that forbids any state from liberalizing its sports gambling laws except Nevada. PLF and Cato submitted an amicus brief asking the Court to take up the case to decide an important constitutional question: can Congress arbitrarily discriminate am ...

Today is Election Day. As Justice Sotomayor noted in her dissent in Schuette v. BAMN, “we are fortunate to live in a democratic society. But without checks, democratically approved legislation can oppress minority groups. For that reason, our Constitution places limits on what a majority of the people may do.” That’s absolutely ...

The heated debate over voter fraud and illegal voting has largely occurred without reliable data on the extent of the problem, but that may be changing in part with a new academic study on noncitizen voting that is receiving significant attention. Townhall published my take on some of its implications here. Among them, the study … ...

This week a judge from the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia vacated disparate impact regulations promulgated by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).  The regulations were based on a twisted interpretation of the Fair Housing Act and prohibited neutral housing practices having a disproportionate adverse effect on ...

On the way to work this morning-after-election day, I heard a great deal of talk on the radio about “mandates.” Pacific Legal Foundation has a mandate to serve the interest of liberty from coast to coast, and the PLF Atlantic Center office follows-through on the mandate by representing clients in disputes with the government all … ...

Earlier today, Pacific Legal Foundation noted that the Supreme Court was scheduled to hear arguments this morning in the case that has become known as “the fishy federal prosecution” of John Yates.  Having now had the opportunity to review the transcript of the OA, it is clear that the justices did not take this case just … ...

For the first time, a federal court has struck down federal regulation of a species under the Endangered Species Act, holding that the Constitution doesn’t give the federal government limitless powers. People for the Ethical Treatment of Property Owners members are property owners and local government in southwestern Utah who have suffered f ...

Today, Pacific Legal Foundation submitted a petition to the California Coastal Commission requesting the rescission of that agency’s after-the-fact permit fee regulation.  The petition, filed on behalf of the Beach and Bluff Conservancy (a coastal landowners organization), argues that the Commission’s regulation illegally imposes a pun ...