Articles

The obvious answer must be no, right? Setting aside the absurdity of a town’s leash law being a federal issue, the Constitution forbids the federal government from commandeering state and local governments. In New York v. United States and Printz v. United States, the Supreme Court explained that this anti-commandeering principle forbids the ...

On Wednesday, February 4, a rare joint hearing of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and the Senate Environmental and Public Works Committee will examine a controversial draft rule by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps). That rule would expand the agencies’ jurisdiction ove ...

Well-doers often forget the costs that the Endangered Species Act imposes on others. The listing of an animal as threatened or endangered saddles people within its range with some heavy burdens. Property owners may lose control over portions of their own property, which they must leave untouched as conservation easements. Farmers risk severe ...

Yesterday, the United States Eastern District of Virginia denied the City of Alexandria’s motion to dismiss Pacific Legal Foundation’s lawsuit in McLean v. City of Alexandria. The court’s opinion made clear that regardless of whether the City decides to later repeal the ordinance, our lawsuit will not become moot and our client wi ...

I will be in the studio with the Armstrong and Getty show at 7 AM tomorrow. You can listen online here. … ...

The Blaze has published an oped by me on PLF’s prairie dog victory late last year. From the oped: The Endangered Species Act is one of the most heavy-handed environmental laws. When an animal – including a rodent – is declared to be in peril and covered by the ESA, federal officials can micromanage people’s … ...

As previewed here a few days ago, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee conducted a joint congressional hearing yesterday to consider a proposed “waters of the United States” regulation by the federal government. The regulation has drawn almost one million public comm ...

In the last decade, California was one of a group of states and cities that sued sellers and manufacturers of lead paint on the theory that those companies had contributed to a “public nuisance.” Public nuisance is a very vague term. Generally, it is defined as “an unreasonable interference with a right common to the … ...

On February 6th, I’ll be speaking at the National Cattlemen‘s Convention in San Antonio.  My talk will be on PLF’s Endangered Species Act litigation and our recent win in the prairie dog case in particular. If you’ll be attending the convention, you can find me on twitter @Jon_C_Wood. If you’d like to have a PLF R ...