Articles

Free speech prevails in Fourth Circuit do-over

January 31, 2016 | By SHAUNEEN WERLINGER

After nearly four years of litigation, property owners’ First Amendment rights were finally vindicated by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in Central Radio Company v. City of Norfolk.  The court ruled that the City of Norfolk unconstitutionally prohibited the plaintiffs (who were protesting the government’s taking of t ...

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Shockingly, EPA and allies misunderstand federalism

January 29, 2016 | By PACIFIC LEGAL FOUNDATION

Last week the Environmental Protection Agency and other groups supporting EPA’s “comprehensive pollution diet” for the Chesapeake Bay watershed filed briefs with the Supreme Court to dissuade the Justices from granting the petition to hear the American Farm Bureau Federation’s legal challenge against EPA’s first-of-it ...

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Wrapping up National School Choice Week 2016

January 29, 2016 | By JOSHUA THOMPSON

Thank you for joining us and helping to spread the word about school choice. National School Choice Week was a huge success. So many wonderful organizations got involved, not to mention the thousands of parents, students, schools, and supporters that spoke out for school choice. Here at PLF it has been a busy week supporting school choice. ̷ ...

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A win for school choice in North Carolina

January 29, 2016 | By MERIEM L. HUBBARD

In 2013, North Carolina’s General Assembly held extensive hearings on legislation designed to equalize educational opportunities for low-income students.  The Opportunity Scholarship Program, would provide scholarships from the State to attend any private school, including those operated by religious organizations. Legislators were shocked a ...

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The virtue of school choice

January 28, 2016 | By CALEB TROTTER

For National School Choice Week, it’s important to remember why choice is so valuable today. Consider the following hypothetical: Suppose you have school-age children, and your local public school is failing. Unfortunately, you cannot afford to pay for the local private school, so you must either send your kids to the failing public school, h ...

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Is environmental law an ass?

January 28, 2016 | By JONATHAN WOOD

No, according to a decision from the Second Circuit issued this week. In Friends of Animals v. Clay, a radical animal rights group challenged a federal permit to take migratory birds that pose a risk to planes at New York’s La Guardia and JFK airports. Birds can be a major threat to planes. Collisions can … ...

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School choice should work for all of us, not just some

January 27, 2016 | By PACIFIC LEGAL FOUNDATION

This week, PLF and many of our friends in the liberty movement are celebrating National School Choice Week, a week dedicated to raising awareness of the importance of parental choice in reforming our system of education. Many credit the early popularization of the school choice movement to the iconic, Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman. ...

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Hope for Washington's charter schools

January 27, 2016 | By ETHAN BLEVINS

National School Choice Week has special meaning this year in Washington, where lawmakers are fighting to save Washington’s charter schools. In 2012, Washington voters passed the state’s first charter school act. The state then approved numerous charter school applications, and the new schools prepared to open their doors in 2015. ...

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Anti-religious discrimination harms school choice

January 27, 2016 | By RAYMOND NHAN

In celebration of National School Choice Week, PLF attorneys are highlighting a number of important school choice cases. Two important pending cases come from Montana and Colorado. Last year, the Montana Legislature established a tax credit scholarship program that provides tax credits to donors who contribute to the scholarship program. The money ...