Articles

Forest Service repudiates its history by opposing private water rights

December 01, 2014 | By TONY FRANCOIS

Liberty Blog readers will recall Pacific Legal Foundation’s recent comment letters to the United States Forest Service, objecting to the Service’s policy and practice of illegally claiming and demanding private water rights in its administration of the nation’s public timber supply. The September 2014 issue of Irrigation Leader m ...

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PLF's Timothy Sandefur to speak at National Constitution Center Dec. 15

December 01, 2014 | By TIMOTHY SANDEFUR

I’m very excited to announce that I’ll be speaking at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia on December 15, about my book, The Conscience of The Constitution. This is part of their Bill of Rights Day Book Festival. I’ll be joined by Jeffrey Rosen and by Prof. Kermit Roosevelt III, whose book The Myth of Judicial ̷ ...

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The erosion of traditional fair play

December 01, 2014 | By ETHAN BLEVINS

Charlie Brown always fell for Lucy’s trick of whipping the football away just as he approached for a kick. One Thanksgiving, Charlie Brown hesitated, but Lucy insisted that football was a Thanksgiving tradition. As Charlie Brown lay on his back after being duped again, Lucy smiled down and said, “Isn’t it peculiar, Charlie Bro ...

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Supreme Court considers whether agencies can adopt regulations behind closed doors

December 01, 2014 | By JONATHAN WOOD

This morning, the US Supreme Court heard argument over whether an agency can adopt new, binding interpretation of its own regulations — essentially changing the regulations in secret — without giving anyone notice and an opportunity to object. The facts of the case are tedious — something to do with banks and loan officers — ...

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Contracts : A trade analogy

December 02, 2014 | By WENCONG FA

Fans of the Oakland Athletics know that the team has just made a big trade. Supporters of Pacific Legal Foundation know that PLF’s Free Enterprise Project defends freedom of contract across the country, including the right of parties to be bound by the words of the contract instead of vague notions of abstract justice. … ...

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Clean Water Act petition gets boost

December 02, 2014 | By REED HOPPER

In October, PLF filed a petition for review in the U.S. Supreme Court in an important Clean Water Act case on behalf of Kent Recycling.  Kent is seeking to challenge a wetland delineation, called a Jurisdictional Determination, on private property that requires the landowner to obtain a $300,000 permit to determine whether a permit is … ...

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Congress turns up the heat on EPA

December 03, 2014 | By REED HOPPER

In a noteworthy article at The Daily Signal, Ron Arnold reports that congressional leaders are fed up with EPA’s reliance on politicized science and that there is a movement afoot to change the way EPA does business.  Citing EPA’s expansive rule to redefine “waters of the United States” to include almost any wet spot in &# ...

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Make the Fair Housing Act fair : Remove disparate impact

December 04, 2014 | By RALPH KASARDA

On October 2, 2014, the United States Supreme Court granted review in Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs v. The Inclusive Communities Project, Inc.  When it did, the Court made it clear that it only wants to resolve one issue:   Whether disparate impact claims are cognizable under the Fair Housing Act.  This week PLF attorneys ...

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PLF joins forces with members of Congress to fight Obamacare

December 04, 2014 | By TIMOTHY SANDEFUR

This morning, we joined forces with over two dozen members of Congress to file a brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to take up a case challenging the constitutionality of the Independent Payment Advisory Board provision of Obamacare. IPAB is the group of “Platonic Guardians” that are empowered to regulate Medicare spending–a boa ...