Articles

Originally published in The Washington Post, November 30, 2018. It’s been almost a year since Geoff Tracy and his restaurant, Chef Geoff’s, filed a First Amendment lawsuit asking a federal court to strike down Virginia’s happy-hour advertising laws. In the Old Dominion, it’s legal for businesses to offer happy hour. It’ ...

Originally published by The Washington Post, November 30, 2018 It’s been almost a year since Geoff Tracy and his restaurant, Chef Geoff’s, filed a First Amendment lawsuit asking a federal court to strike down Virginia’s happy-hour advertising laws. In the Old Dominion, it’s legal for businesses to offer happy hour. It’ ...

Agencies at every level play an outsized role in everyday life. The FDA imposes nutritional guidelines; the FCC controls what viewers can see on TV. Many other alphabet-soup agencies regulate in many other areas of life. Thus, while many Americans think that it’s Congress that is regulating through legislation, it is usually the agency promul ...

Should federal executive branch agencies be accountable to Congress? For most people, the common-sense answer to that question is “yes.” Yet PLF attorneys regularly go head-to-head with government lawyers who seem to believe their agencies should be immune from such basic accountability. Case in point: Today, PLF was in federal court in ...

In 2011, PLF client Uri Rafaeli of Oakland County, Michigan, accidentally underpaid property taxes by $8. He paid all the following years’ taxes on time. But in 2014, after making his first tax payment for the year, he discovered that the County had foreclosed on his home to collect the $8 debt, plus about $277 … ...

Today the Supreme Court heard oral argument in Timbs v.  Indiana, a case brought by our friends at Institute for Justice.  In Timbs, the Supreme Court will decide whether the Eighth Amendment’s Excessive Fines Clause is incorporated against the states. In other words, the court will decide whether the Eighth Amendment prevents states (and n ...

Do you own the trees on your property? Most property owners assume so, but one particular Michigan municipality thinks otherwise: Canton, a township just outside Detroit, has ramped up enforcement of an ordinance requiring property owners to get permits to remove trees from their land. Those permits are not cheap either. Property owners must agree ...

Originally published by The Daily Signal on November 26, 2018. When flocks of birds fly too close to airports, hotels, or landfills, property managers call someone like professional falconer Scott Timmons. Timmons launches one of his falcons to patrol the property, where the majestic creature swoops and dives, scaring away seagulls, pigeons, and th ...

Originally published by Star Tribune, November 21, 2018 Minnesota is historically known as a progressive state. But if you’re the parent of a high school dancer, you can be excused for thinking otherwise. After recent changes in South Dakota, Minnesota is now the only state in the country that prohibits boys from participating in high … ...