Haley Dutch
Haley Dutch joined Pacific Legal Foundation as an attorney in 2024. Her work focuses on restoring and protecting equal treatment under law, individual liberty, and the right to earn a living. Within the area of equality and opportunity, Haley is particularly interested in restricting the power of regulators and bureaucrats while increasing the free ...
The government had George Sheetz ‘over a barrel.’ He took his case to the Supreme Court—and won.
This post has been updated to reflect George Sheetz’s April 12 victory at the Supreme Court. Picture this: You’re a 65-year-old retiree who bought a small parcel of land in El Dorado County, California. In your career you worked your way up from $5-an-hour laborer to head of your own engineering contracting company. Your plans … ...
Washington Examiner: Justice Thomas leaves the door open for future challenges to rent control
Rent control is a bad housing policy that won’t go away. Unfortunately, this term, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to review not one, not two, but three cases that challenged New York City’s 2019 iteration of the bad housing policy, euphemistically labeled “rent stabilization.” But thanks to Justice Clarence Thomas, the pr ...
SCOTUS rules government cannot use permit process to coerce property owners
Today, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that legislatures cannot use the permit process to coerce owners into paying exorbitant development fees. The ruling, a major victory for property rights, will remove costly barriers to development, thereby helping to combat the housing crisis. … ...
Friends of the Crazy Mountains v. Erickson
Like much of the American West, the area around Montana’s Crazy Mountains—the Crazies—is a checkerboard of federal, state, and private land. Also, as is typical in the western U.S., access to the Crazies’ higher-elevation public land is limited and requires permission from private landowners. … ...
National Review: The Administrative State Comes for James Bond — and You Could Be Next
The law finally caught up to James Bond — or at least the actor who used to play him. On March 14, 2024, former 007 actor Pierce Brosnan pleaded guilty in federal court in Wyoming to a single count of straying from a footpath in a thermal area of Yellowstone National Park. Brosnan was cited for allegedly standing … ...
James Madison: America’s Constitutional Freedom Fighter
James Madison is remembered as the “Father of the Constitution,” and for good reason. His unique approach to politics balanced majority rule and minority rights through a series of battles that forged our constitutional system. His fight for religious liberty in Virginia, the ratification of the Constitution, the founding of the Republi ...
Jaimie Cavanaugh
Jaimie Cavanaugh is legal policy counsel at Pacific Legal Foundation, where she works with legislators around the country to end burdensome laws and create opportunities for individuals to thrive. Following law school, she completed a judicial fellowship with Justice Monica Márquez before spending five years at Mountain States Legal Foundation and ...
Meghan Hixon
Meghan Hixon joined PLF’s legal support team in 2024. She has worked in the legal field since 2017. Meghan first became involved in the liberty movement during her freshman year of college. Throughout her undergraduate career, she partnered with several student organizations on campus to advocate for free speech and individual liberty. She g ...
