Articles

Last week, the Supreme Court issued its narrow decision in Tyson v. Bouaphakeo, allowing class certification in a case dependent on statistical sampling to prove liability in limited circumstances. PLF’s amicus brief in the case argued that statistical sampling is irreconcilable with due process protections that require plaintiffs to demonstr ...

The Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment guarantees that no state shall “deprive any person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law.” Reading this clause, one would assume that “property” includes real property (i.e. land), right? Not so fast. Courts nationwide are in disagreement about whether  ...

You’ve read about it in history books. You’ve seen in it on The Tudors. During the seventeenth century, British Parliament presided over specific cases, heard evidence on criminal charges, and voted on the guilt of individuals accused of certain wrongs. The practice shocked the Framers. They ratified the bill of attainder clauses in th ...

Supreme Court member apologizes  Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg today issued an apology today on behalf of all Justices, living and dead, who ever espoused the notion of a “living constitution.” Saying that she was visited by the ghost of her late friend, Nino Scalia, she exclaimed, “it’s a stable constitution that we need, no ...

To begin with, they often give property owners a very hard time.  Last week, my colleague Reed Hopper argued for one of those property owners in the United States Supreme Court. The case, United States Army Corps of Engineers v. Hawkes Co., concerns whether a property owner may obtain judicial review of the Corps’ final administrative R ...

As regular readers know, PLF argued a case in the Supreme Court of the United States last week, U.S. Army Corps v. Hawkes Co., concerning whether property owners can have their day in court when the federal government declares their land subject to federal control. During the oral argument, Justice Kennedy — long-considered the “swing ...

The fight over whether to list the wolverine under the Endangered Species Act has dragged on for twenty years. Yesterday, a federal district court in Montana decided to prolong the battle. … ...

Today, PLF filed its opening brief in a challenge to the Fish and Wildlife Service’s denial of a petition demanding that the agency follow the law. This case centers on a sea otter compromise that Congress struck between the Service, environmentalists, and those who work and play in Southern California waters. Recently, the Service has ̷ ...

Unless you live in Adelanto, California or closely follow Minor League Baseball, you’ve probably missed out on the brouhaha between the city of Adelanto and the owners of the High Desert Mavericks baseball team. The trouble centers on the 2012 lease agreement between Adelanto and Main Street California, LLC–owners of the Mavericks, the ...