Articles

Picture America. Idyllic images of amber waves of grain, purple mountain majesties, or ancient desert canyons fill the mind. Above whatever landscape the word “America” calls to your mind, an eagle probably soars through the sky. Ironically, that image of freedom evoked by a bird of prey gliding through the sky is actually tightly contr ...

Knick to be reargued The court has ordered Knick v. Scott Township for reargument. In this order the Court has asked Ms. Knick to file a supplemental briefs by the end of the month with the town’s reply due just before Christmas. The issue the court is asking for more briefing on was raised in oral … ...

The Constitution forbids states from passing laws in order to entrench local businesses and exclude free and fair competition.  But Texas has worked for decades to protect its local liquor empires by excluding competitors from entering into the state. More than 20 years ago, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals declared that Texas’s law which ...

Originally published by The Hill on November 5, 2018. The fate of a moose hunter flying a hovercraft on an Alaska river will either protect or limit water uses across America, depending on how the Supreme Court rules after hearing argument today in Sturgeon v. Frost. This case involves John Sturgeon’s nearly decade-long legal battle … ...

What are the proper limits on government power? For some complicated legal questions, the answer is not always easy. But for others, like the operation of the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, a literal line has been drawn over which agents of the government cannot permissibly pass. The Fourth Amendment protects individuals and their prop ...

PLF client Joe Robertson lives deep in the Montana woods at the edge of a national forest, an area increasingly prone to destructive, life-threatening fires. The only available water supply to fight fires near his property is the couple of garden hoses of flow in a foot-wide, foot-deep nameless channel that flows through a clearing … ...

Rose Knick thought the pinnacle of her case would be on October 3, 2018, when eight Supreme Court justices spent an hour hearing legal arguments arising from her attempt to hold Scott Township accountable for taking her property without paying for it. But now Rose will do something few people who make it to the … ...

This morning, PLF filed an Amicus Letter urging the Supreme Court of California to grant review of the court of appeal’s decision in Environmental Law Foundation v. State Water Resources Control Board. The court of appeal held that Siskiyou County, California is required to consider public trust interests before granting a permit to construc ...

In light of Joe Robertson’s appeal of his Clean Water Act conviction to the U.S. Supreme Court, readers might be wondering if any foot-wide ditches on their property are also “navigable,” as the EPA imaginatively re-interprets that word. As it turns out, the answer depends on what state you live in. Here’s what you need  ...