Articles

Good intentions. Horrible execution. Disastrous results. That pretty much sums up the federal government’s mismanagement of water supplies in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to help Delta smelt and salmon species. Water diverted to help declining populations of fish listed under the Endangered Species Act has created severe collateral damage ...

Earlier today, PLF attorneys filed the reply brief in 616 Croft Ave, LLC v. City of West Hollywood. As you may recall, this case arose from the City’s demand that husband and wife entrepreneurs Shelah and Jonathan Lehrer-Graiwer pay a $540,000 “affordable housing” fee in order to get the necessary permits to build new homes. R ...

Federal wildlife regulators have a legal responsibility to consider the impact of federal actions on endangered wildlife. That is their legal argument for their program to de-water the farms and communities of California’s San Joaquin Valley, by holding that water for endangered fish in the Sacramento Delta instead. But life comes at you fas ...

PLF attorney Dave Breemer and I will be speaking at the upcoming ALI-CLE course, Eminent Domain and Land Valuation in San Diego this upcoming January 26 to 28. In addition to Dave and me, Robert Thomas who helps PLF on cases out of Hawaii is a co-chair of the conference. This course has always been … ...

Right to say you are who you are We filed this complaint on behalf of Peggy Fontenot against the State of Oklahoma. The rub of Fontenot v. Pruitt is that Peggy Fontenot, who is a member of the Patawomeck Indian Tribe, is not allowed to say in Oklahoma that her photographs and artwork are made … ...

Last week, PLF’s motion to intervene was granted in a case threatening to radically expand criminal liability under the Endangered Species Act. As you may recall, we represent several southwestern agricultural organizations who, like pretty much everyone else, face the prospect of imprisonment for innocent mistakes if this case succeeds.  ...

In National Federation of Independent Business v. Dougherty, we challenge the so-called Fairfax Memo, a substantial pro-union re-write of federal law governing workplace safety inspections. Last month, the feds moved to dismiss our challenge on procedural and substantive grounds. Yesterday, we filed our opposition to the feds’ motion to dismi ...

Though occupational licensing laws are often justified in terms of health or safety, studies show that licensing regimes are more often bare attempts by entrenched business interests to protect their market share.  The result of such crony laws is that entrepreneurs are barred from pursuing an honest living, with no corresponding benefit to the pu ...

We ended slavery over 150 years ago today. It was a formative and controversial moment. But we rarely see the Thirteenth Amendment–which abolished slavery and involuntary servitude–invoked today as a means of securing liberty. Is it relevant to the issues we deal with now? I believe it is. The Thirteenth Amendment which ended slavery w ...