Articles

Racial harmony in the third grade

May 31, 2015 | By MERIEM L. HUBBARD

A story in the New York Post reports that a $43,000 per year school in Riverdale, New York, requires third graders to identify their race on a questionnaire and attend weekly sessions with people of their own race.  Why?  Because the school uncovered “miscroagressions” like these:  “A girl puts her hands in another girl& ...

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President's weekly report — May 29, 2015

May 29, 2015 | By ROB RIVETT

POTUS’s WOTUS headed for SCOTUS? The President’s EPA minions issued the long-dreaded Waters of the United States rule this week, guaranteeing another clash before the Supreme Court of the United States. For more, and a link to our comments on the rule as proposed, see this blog post. Ever since our victory in Rapanos over EPA’s ...

Articles

Appellate court to hear constitutional challenge to ESA

May 28, 2015 | By REED HOPPER

On June 2, we will be holding a D.C. event to discuss with lawmakers and others our landmark PETPO case that is now pending in the Tenth Circuit after a Utah District Court held that federal regulation of local prairie dogs exceeds constitutional authority under the Endangered Species Act.  Coincidentally, that same day I will … ...

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FAA largely scraps merit-based testing for air traffic controllers

May 28, 2015 | By JOSHUA THOMPSON

PLF friend Hans Bader reports on some awfully disturbing news out of the Federal Aviation Administration.  It seems the FAA has scrapped merit-based testing for air traffic controllers in lieu of diversity-based screening. For one FAA manager feeling the pressure to promote diversity, even a dumbed-down test apparently wasn’t enough: to ...

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Lawless Administration adopts deceptive Clean Water Act Rule

May 27, 2015 | By REED HOPPER

Today, the Corps of Engineers and Environmental Protection Agency issued their final rule defining “waters of the United States” subject to federal control under the Clean Water Act.  The EPA web page is here, but don’t believe everything you read.  The rule does not simply clarify existing regulation.  It completely redefines ...

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How California courts are evading federal law

May 27, 2015 | By WENCONG FA

Today’s Daily Journal carries an op-ed by PLF attorneys Deborah La Fetra and Wen Fa on DIRECTV v. Imburgia, the latest in a long line of California court cases undermining arbitration and evading federal law. Here’s a taste: For nearly a century, the Federal Arbitration Act has explicitly instructed courts to respect the decision of &# ...

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PLF's Timothy Sandefur and Jennifer Thompson on property rights in California

May 27, 2015 | By TIMOTHY SANDEFUR

I’m guest-hosting on KFMB AM 760 in San Diego all week between 10 and noon, and this morning I talked with PLF staff attorney Jennifer Thompson about our litigation in defense of property rights in California. We talked in particular about the Lynch case, in which the court held that a property owner is not … ...

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Unions seek exemption to union-backed minimum wage law

May 27, 2015 | By JOSHUA THOMPSON

The Los Angeles Times is reporting that labor unions are seeking an exemption to the minimum wage rule that they helped pushed through. In a statement dripping with irony, Rusty Hicks, who heads the county Federation of Labor, explained why union-negotiated contracts should get the exemption: “With a collective bargaining agreement, a busi ...

Articles

It's good to have friends

May 27, 2015 | By JONATHAN WOOD

Many friend-of-the-court briefs have been filed supporting People for the Ethical Treatment of Property Owners‘ challenge to the federal government’s unconstitutional Utah prairie dog regulation. These briefs are a reminder of how important the issue is and how unnecessary the federal regulation — and its immense burdens on indivi ...