Articles

Nearly 27 percent of North Dakotans can’t work unless they have a license from the government. But many of these government permission slips are needless: they create red tape that serves to protect industry insiders from competition, not the health or safety of the public. Take North Dakota’s requirement that music therapists be licens ...

Every new year brings new surprises, challenges, dilemmas, and opportunities. Never more so than now, as the curtain rises on 2017. A new president is set to take the oath of office. Congress has many new faces. And there is the prospect, soon, of a new Supreme Court justice to replace the late, great Antonin … ...

Last weekend, The Wall Street Journal ran an op-ed that Professor John Yoo and I wrote to answer the White House’s claim that Trump can’t reverse President Obama’s recent proclamations that lock up millions of acres of public land from reasonable public uses. Yoo and I plan to publish an expanded paper on our study … ...

For most of his career, Nebraska resident Bob Bennie happily conducted his business as a successful financial advisor without government harassment. But that changed after he was quoted in a newspaper making controversial remarks about President Obama. Suddenly, Bennie had a bullseye painted on his back by regulators who oversee his industry. The r ...

According to the California Coastal Commission staff, any permit where public access has not been granted can be automatically appealed on the grounds that California likes public access. A standard that weak is no standard at all, and certainly not what the legislature intended when it provided only limited grounds for appeal under section 30625 ...

There’s some great news out of Oklahoma to announce. Oklahoma officials have agreed to (and the Court has signed off on) a stipulation to stay enforcement of Oklahoma’s American Indian Arts and Crafts Sales Act while PLF’s challenge to the law is pending. If you’ll recall, in November PLF challenged that law on behalf of a ...

New York laws and regulations deem family daycare providers (individuals who operate daycare businesses in their homes) to be “public employees” and requires a union to be the daycare providers’ exclusive representative for bargaining with (e.g., lobbying) the state over daycare regulations and policies. The workers who are “ ...

Supreme Court watch We are waiting for word from the Supreme Court on three of our cases where we are directly representing the petitioners. The Court held its conference on Bennie v. Munn, (retaliation for speaking out for Tea Party) Foster v. Vilsack, (phony wetlands designation) and the Waters of the United States jurisdictional challenge.  ...

For over 30 years, Peggy Fontenot has sold her beadwork and photographs at American Indian art shows across the country. But this year, at the behest of politically connected tribes, Oklahoma passed a law that prohibits anyone who is not a member of a federally recognized tribe from marketing their art as “American Indian-made.” This & ...