Articles

Yesterday, the California Supreme Court denied the petition for review in Sherman v. Hennessy Industries, in which the California Court of Appeal held that the manufacturer of a safe product can be liable for injuries caused by unsafe products used with the safe product.  PLF had urged the Court to accept the case. The court … ...

Today, in the first order list of the 2015 Term, the Supreme Court granted certiorari in MHN Government Services, Inc. v. Zaborowski, in which the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals applied a severability rule created by the California Supreme Court in Armendariz v. Foundation Health Psychcare Services to invalidate an arbitration contract. Severabilit ...

PLF has filed a motion to intervene on behalf of the New Mexico Cattle Growers’ Association, New Mexico Federal Lands Council, and the New Mexico Farm and Livestock Bureau in a case that threatens to radically expand criminal liability under the Endangered Species Act. If the case is successful, we’ll all need to quickly become … ...

The ACLU is attempting to destroy school choice in Nevada. Passed in June, the Educational Savings Account law provides between $5,100-$5,700 a year for a child’s education-including transportation, technology, or home schooling. The ACLU’s suit, filed in late August, is just the most recent attempt by school choice opponents to preven ...

Washington’s “growth management” approach to regulating land-use adjacent to environmentally sensitive areas relies almost exclusively on presumptions and generalizations—demanding that landowners dedicate oversized buffers based on assumed impacts rather than any actual determination that a proposed development will or will not ...

There’s an interesting issue lurking in PLF’s petition for review in Common Sense Alliance v. Growth Management Hearings Board: Is a conservation buffer an interest in real property? Briefly about the case: Common Sense Alliance involves a challenge to San Juan County’s newly updated critical areas ordinance, which conditions the ...

Today, PLF urged the Florida’s Second District Court of Appeal to take up its duty to protect individual rights, and to enforce the state constitution’s protections for economic liberty. Occupational licensing has run amok.  As a White House Report recently detailed, nearly a third of Americans need a license to do their job legally.  ...

The tragic figure Macbeth said, “Stars, hide your fires; Let not light see my black and deep desires.” Enlightened decisions don’t flourish in shadow. Likewise, good government means open government. As James Madison wrote, “a popular government, without popular information, or the means of acquiring it, is but a prologue ...

Endangered species — Utah prairie dog Oral argument was held this week in People for Ethical Treatment of Property Owners v. United States Fish & Wildlife Service, the case where we are challenging the right of the federal government to regulate the Utah prairie dog, a rodent that lives only in the State of Utah … ...