Articles

GOP governors like Florida's Ron DeSantis and Alabama's Kay Ivey have been making splashy headlines for attacking diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs and environmental, social and governance (ESG) standards at companies like BlackRock and Disney. But the laws of their own states allow racial preferences in education, employment and publi ...

Fantasy stories delight our senses by taking us to imaginary worlds where wizards roam the earth and magic is real. Yet, in this fictional realm where readers have the pleasure of suspending reality, there are still universal truths that mirror the real world around us. The beloved Harry Potter series, for example, is ripe with lessons of injustice ...

What is the legal question in Sheetz? In 2016, George Sheetz bought a vacant lot in rural El Dorado County, California, and planned to build a small, manufactured home where he and his wife would live in retirement and raise their grandson. But when George applied for a county building permit, he was told he would have to pay a so-called traff ...

On Tuesday, January 9, 2024, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in Sheetz v. County of El Dorado, a case challenging the government's ability to place unreasonable conditions, including large "impact fees," on property owners seeking building permits. Pacific Legal Foundation partnered with Paul Beard of FisherBroyles, LLP and argued that th ...

Just about every time a case involving the administrative state heads to the Supreme Court, we're subjected to hysterical warnings of the end of the world. A recent piece in The Atlantic might set a new standard for apocalyptic fearmongering. NYU Law Professor Noah Rosenblum frets that what he calls a garden-variety securities fraud case could "des ...

Americans think they understand the law. When they drive over the speed limit, they know they risk a speeding ticket. When they enter a piece of private property with signs that warn "no trespassing," they know that to ignore the fence and signs is to break the law and risk arrest. Or does it? As it turns out, "no trespassing" does not mean "n ...

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court will hear argument in Sheetz v. County of El Dorado. It is the fourth in a series of cases since 1987 involving the application of the unconstitutional conditions doctrine to the Takings Clause and land-use permits, namely, Nollan v. California Coastal Commission (1987), Dolan v. City of Tigard (1994), and Koontz v. St ...

"I'll take it all the way to the Supreme Court." It's far easier said than done, and it can take years for a legal battle to wind its way through the courts. When the federal government is on the other side—as it often is in Pacific Legal Foundation cases—it takes a relentless, determined attitude to press on, sometimes for more than a decade. ...

Jamie Leach has dedicated her life to the pursuit of child safety. After receiving her Bachelor of Science degree in nursing, Jamie worked as a nurse in a pediatric intensive care unit in Ada, Oklahoma, where she lives. She later went on to combine her love of helping others with her natural proclivity toward innovation and started Leachco, a famil ...