Articles

Last week, the Obama Administration released a report on the effects of occupational licensing, and calling for reforms that would better protect the rights of entrepreneurs and workers to earn a living without unreasonable government interference. This is a gratifying development: licensing laws often bar the nation’s hardest-working people ...

We have been reporting on numerous challenges to the Corps and EPA’s new rule redefining “waters of the United States” for weeks, including our own.  More than 10 suits have been filed across the country challenging the rule for violating the Clean Water Act, controlling Supreme Court decisions, and long-held limits on federal au ...

If forced to describe Pacific Legal Foundation as only one particular organization’s bête noire, I would find it tough to pick just one. The California Coastal Commission? The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service? Your average state regulatory agency? The pickings are vast, and Constitution-violating government entities numerous. But if forced ...

For years, PLF has been chronicling—and combating—the efforts of California courts to nullify arbitration contracts. Federal law requires that states enforce arbitration agreements just like any other contract, but California courts have found various loopholes to avoid enforcing such agreements, largely because they regard arbitration as basic ...

The new report from the White House about the problems with occupational licensing laws is a great step forward, given how little attention is paid to the fundamental human right of every person to earn a living without unreasonable government interference. But among the report’s recommendations, one stands out as positively bad—in fact, po ...

One thing the White House’s report on occupational licensing laws unfortunately left out completely is Competitor’s Veto laws: laws that forbid people from entering a business not because they are unskilled or unqualified, but solely and explicitly because existing businesses don’t want competition. While other kinds of occupation ...

Last week’s White House report on occupational licensing laws details some offers some disturbing information about how these laws restrict economic opportunity for entrepreneurs, and raise the cost of living for consumers. Some highlights: More than a quarter, and possibly a third, of all Americans need some form of government license to do ...

Yesterday, a Fifth Circuit panel issued its opinion in the controversial Texas voter ID case. The case involves challenges under the Voting Rights Act as well as the Fourteenth, Fifteenth, and Twenty-Fourth Amendments. Particularly at issue was whether Texas’ effort to require that voters present a valid photo ID violates Section 2 of the Vot ...

This week, PLF filed its final brief on the motion for summary judgment in the sea otter case. The case will be argued in L.A. on Sept. 21. Representing fishermen whose livelihood depends on being able to access Southern California’s waters, we argue that the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service can’t ignore an express command … ...