Articles

The Ninth Circuit rattled the entire timber industry earlier this year when it held that channeled runoff from forest roads must be regulated as industrial discharge in Northwest Environmental Defense Center v. Brown.  That’s because the court’s decision could force the forest products sector – from large corporations to small pr ...

Washington Governor Chris Gregoire appointed King County Superior Court Judge Steven Gonzalez to the Supreme Court of Washington this afternoon.  Gonzalez has been on the bench in superior court since 2002.  Before that, he was an assistant U.S. attorney. Judge Gonzalez was appointed to replace the retiring Gerry Alexander, who faces mandatory re ...

Justice Sandra Day O’Connor gave a 20-minute video presentation on October 14 when she accepted the Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Prize that was awarded in Beijing at the Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Conference jointly hosted by William & Mary Law School and Tsinghua University.  The video is now available and can be viewed here.  In ...

A federal court in Washington, D.C. recently upheld the National Marine Fisheries Service’s decision to list beluga whales in Cook Inlet as an endangered species, even though recent surveys show that the beluga population is not significantly declining.  The court’s decision is based on the proposition that the beluga population is end ...

Today was supposed to be the day we learned whether the U.S. Supreme Court would review the Ninth Circuit’s opinion in Northwest Environmental Defense Center v. Brown, the case which held that channeled rainwater from forest roads must be regulated as point-source pollution under the Clean Water Act’s National Pollutant Discharge Elimin ...

Some stimulating conversation about Sackett v. EPA continues at SCOTUSblog today.  One question up for discussion is: Does the Constitution protect property rights on par with individual rights such as the right to equal protection and free speech? … ...

Today Capital Press printed my op-ed on Georgia-Pacific West, Inc. v. Northwest Environmental Defense Center, the “forest road runoff” case we have been chronicling here. … ...

Earlier this year, PLF filed a petition for a writ certiorari with the U.S. Supreme Court in the case, Kitsap Alliance for Property Owners v. Central Puget Sound Growth Management Hearings Board.  The petition asks the Court to review a Washington appellate decision holding that a county can force landowners to dedicate large tracts of private & ...

Readers who have been following our efforts to challenge the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate should check out a brand new publication from The Heritage Foundation.  The paper, called Empowering Patients as Key Decision Makers in the Face of Rising Health Care Costs, advises lawmakers to adopt measures that promote personal liberty i ...