Articles

Victory in Sansotta v. Town of Nags Head

March 27, 2015 | By JENNIFER THOMPSON

We are thrilled to report that former PLF client, Roc Sansotta, has reached a settlement agreement with the Town of Nags Head, North Carolina, to the tune of $1.5 million! Under the agreement, the Town will essentially buy Sansotta’s beachfront property and cottages, and tear them down to make the land part of the public beach. … ...

Articles

Procedural victory in Beach & Bluff Conservancy v. City of Solana Beach & California Coastal Commission

March 13, 2015 | By JENNIFER THOMPSON

Good news. We obtained a victory this week in our lawsuit challenging the City of Solana Beach’s unlawful restrictions on seawalls and coastal homeowners’ property rights. The City and the Commission filed demurrers to our complaint, asserting that our case should not move forward because of alleged, fundamental procedural flaws. The co ...

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Arguing with the California Coastal Commission

March 06, 2015 | By JENNIFER THOMPSON

Last week I had a hearing in San Diego in one of PLF’s Coastal Land Rights cases: Beach & Bluff Conservancy v. City of Solana Beach & California Coastal Commission. The case challenges certain policies in the City’s Coastal Land Use Plan that unlawfully restrict residents’ ability to protect their property from erosion by ...

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Daily Journal publishes PLF op ed on Horne v. U.S.D.A.

February 11, 2015 | By JENNIFER THOMPSON

The Daily Journal in San Francisco and Los Angeles published an op ed I wrote about Horne v. U.S.D.A., also known as the “raisin takings case.”  As I reported, the U.S. Supreme Court recently granted cert in this case, for the second time.  The first time it held that Marvin and Laura Horne, raisin farmers from Fresno, could ̷ ...

Articles

U.S. Supreme Court grants cert in Horne v. U.S.D.A. aka The Raisin Takings Case

January 16, 2015 | By JENNIFER THOMPSON

Good news. The Supreme Court announced today it will hear Horne v. U.S.D.A., a case challenging the Department of Agriculture’s arcane requirement that California raisin farmers turn over a portion of their crop to the government, every year, as a prerequisite to selling the rest of their crop. The Ninth Circuit held there was nothing … ...

Articles

SF Chronicle agrees with Levin ruling

October 27, 2014 | By JENNIFER THOMPSON

Last week in the wake of PLF’s victory in Levin v. City and County of San Francisco, the San Francisco Chronicle published an editorial applauding the court’s ruling.  Entitled, The court is right: San Francisco’s Ellis Act fees were too high, the editorial describes the tenant relocation payments as “excessive and unfair.& ...

Articles

PLF and the Levins win : S.F. tenant-payment mandate is struck down

October 21, 2014 | By JENNIFER THOMPSON

Today U.S. District Court Judge Charles Breyer sided with Pacific Legal Foundation’s (PLF) lawsuit and struck down San Francisco’s Tenant Relocation Ordinance, as unconstitutional. Under the ordinance, rental property owners who want to reclaim use of their own property must pay a massive sum to their tenants – a sum that the tenant d ...

Articles

PLF files final brief in San Francisco Tenant Relocation Ordinance challenge – ruling imminent

October 15, 2014 | By JENNIFER THOMPSON

PLF attorneys filed their final brief in Daniel and Maria Levins’ challenge to the City of San Francisco’s outrageous Tenant Relocation Ordinance. The Ordinance requires landlords who wish to remove their property from the rental market to pay their tenants the difference between the tenant’s existing, rent-controlled rate and the ...

Articles

PLF's Levin trial in the news

October 07, 2014 | By JENNIFER THOMPSON

PLF’s trial in Levin v. City and County of San Francisco was featured on last night’s ABC local news broadcast and made several of this morning’s papers.  These include: the San Francisco Examiner; the Courthouse News Service; and the S.F. Recorder.  Many of the reporters attended the trial and PLF’s press conference after ...