Articles

I recently received a startling email from an attorney, demanding that I "cease and desist" speaking out against reparations for black Americans. First, some background: For decades, Pacific Legal Foundation has been reporting and speaking out against government efforts to reward or disadvantage individuals based on their race. That includes rep ...

Johnston is a small Rhode Island town where Ralph Santoro's family has long worked. Ralph was not one of the lucky few who inherited generational wealth, but he did inherit his father's priceless, working-class wisdom. His father had immigrated from Italy after marrying his mother—a true first-generation American. Ralph's mother had been brought ...

Our communities are the building blocks of society. Whether neighbors, churches, family, or the family we create from our friends, our communities shape who we are. They also serve as core support systems. It is through these connections that we know what it means to be human. For 25-year-old Austin Davis, his love for his community is the drivi ...

Did a California school district violate the First Amendment when it punished a first grader for writing "Black Lives Mater sic ... any life" on a drawing and giving it to a friend? That question was before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in oral arguments this week. Pacific Legal Foundation attorney Caleb Trotter argued the case of B.B. v. C ...

Last week, President Donald Trump announced that his administration would be slapping tariffs on an enormous share of the things Americans buy. Tariffs have a long history in the United States. But the president does not possess the constitutional authority to create tariffs unilaterally. This power is vested solely in Congress and cannot be delega ...

When property owners apply to the government for building permits, they're often required to pay impact fees: fees meant to cover the strain additional buildings have on public resources like roads, sewers, schools, and parks. There's nothing wrong with properly set impact fees. But some local governments set impact fees that are excessively hig ...

When you protect property, you protect privacy. That was the message Pacific Legal Foundation attorneys conveyed in one of eight amicus briefs filed last week in support of James Harper in his petition for a writ of certiorari to the United States Supreme Court in his case, Harper v. O'Donnell. Harper brought his case after discovering that he w ...

There's so much interesting stuff happening at the Court that you get not one, but two scoops of SCOTUS this week. In Part I, I'll discuss all of the opinions that were released over the past two weeks. In Part II, we'll recap some of the wild oral arguments. Let's dig in! Even after the demise of Chevron deference, the government is gonna win som ...

Several years ago, an author defended looting in an NPR interview by arguing, "It's just property. It's not actually hurting any people." That justification stayed with me. How many Americans have forgotten that private property is how human beings implement their freedom in the world? Liberty is not just the freedom to think but also to do – ...