Articles

Weekly litigation update — April 28, 2018

April 28, 2018 | By JAMES BURLING

Markle Interests’ brief filed with High Court in Weyerhaeuser v. U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service This week we filed our merits brief in the Supreme Court supporting the landowers in Weyerhaeuser Co. v. United States Fish & Wildlife Service. Earlier this year, the Court granted review and we expect to hear soon from the Court … ...

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San Francisco Discriminates Against Property Owners – Again

April 27, 2018 | By KAYCEE ROYER

The City of San Francisco has openly discriminated against property owners to remove rights that are protected by the U.S. and California Constitutions as well as rights that are protected by California state law. Our clients have the right to take these claims to federal court where a neutral, qualified judge can hear them. … ...

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New report shows the conservation benefits of regulating endangered and threatened species differently

April 26, 2018 | By JONATHAN WOOD

This week, the Property and Environment Research Center (PERC) published The Road to Recovery: How restoring the Endangered Species Act’s two-step process can prevent extinction and promote recovery. In that report, I explain how returning to Congress’ original design for the Endangered Species Act—according to which the statute&# ...

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SCOTUS avoids the administrative elephant in the room

April 26, 2018 | By BRIAN HODGES

Earlier this week, the US Supreme Court issued its decision in Oil States Energy Services, LLC v. Greene’s Energy Group, LLC, upholding by a 7-2 margin the inter partes review process used by the Patent Trial and Appeal Board to invalidate already-issued patent claims. At issue was whether this process must be heard by an … ...

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Post script on California home school bill showdown : Orwell channels James Madison

April 26, 2018 | By TONY FRANCOIS

Many thanks to PLF colleague Tim Snowball for his expert and tireless coverage of yesterday’s hearing in the California Assembly Education Committee, on Riverside Assemblyman Jose Medina’s bill to subject home school families to state inspection of their homes and state review of their curriculum. Much has been made, and rightly so, of ...

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Seattle clings to oppressive first-in-time rule

April 26, 2018 | By ETHAN BLEVINS

Today, Seattle appealed PLF’s victory in our first-in-time case. The first-in-time rule stripped landlords of the right to choose their tenants. Under the rule, a landlord had to offer a rental unit to the first guy to walk in the door with an adequate application, reducing careful discretion to a roll of the die. PLF … ...

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California homeschoolers to Education Committee : ‘Leave our children’s education alone!’

April 25, 2018 | By TIMOTHY SNOWBALL

This afternoon, the California Assembly Committee on Education met to discuss Assembly Bill 2756. Originally, AB 2756 would have required the compilation and dissemination of separate lists of all private schools with six or more students and five or fewer students in California, and would have required the inspection of all included schools for c ...

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PLF files merits brief in Weyerhaeuser v. US Fish & Wildlife Service

April 25, 2018 | By MARK MILLER

This week Pacific Legal Foundation filed its merits brief supporting the petitioner, Weyerhaeuser Company, in Supreme Court Case No. 17-71, Weyerhaeuser Co. v. United States Fish & Wildlife Service. Earlier this year the Court granted certiorari; we expect to hear soon from the Clerk of Court when oral argument will occur. In this case, we  ...

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The Hill : Focus on legal questions, not politics, in Supreme Court travel ban case

April 23, 2018 | By MARK MILLER

Published in The Hill April 23, 2018. Last week, Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch joined his four Democrat-appointed colleagues to declare unconstitutional an immigrant-deportation law defended by the Trump administration. Media accounts portrayed the event as a setback for President Trump, since immigration enforcement was one of his signatur ...