Articles

When the Service rejected a delisting petition for the coastal California gnatcatcher, it acknowledged that it was not going to define “subspecies,” the very term upon which the denial rests, even while acknowledging that the term enjoys no commonly accepted meaning among scientists. Thus, by not defining that key term, the Service effe ...

This week PLF filed an amicus brief in Washington v. United States, arguing that the United States Supreme Court should overturn the Ninth Circuit’s incorrect reading of the Stevens Treaties. The Ninth Circuit’s reading not only massively expands the Treaties’ traditional interpretation, but it also improperly imposes an environme ...

The City of San Francisco has openly discriminated against property owners to remove rights that are protected by the U.S. and California Constitutions as well as rights that are protected by California state law. Our clients have the right to take these claims to federal court where a neutral, qualified judge can hear them. … ...

Yesterday, PLF successfully defeated an attempt to dismiss its lawsuit that would require the government to follow its own laws and regulations. At issue is the Regulatory Flexibility Act (RFA), which requires that the government conduct an economic analysis on the costs to small businesses whenever it regulates them. The U.S. Fish & Wildlife S ...

Originally published by Capital Press June 11, 2018. Under the California Endangered Species Act (CESA), the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) is required to conduct status reviews of species listed as either threatened or endangered every five years. The department has unlawfully failed to conduct these five-year status reviews for ...

On Monday, the Supreme Court issued its decision in Washington v. United States. This case dealt directly with whether various Indian Tribes in the Puget Sound could require the state of Washington to rebuild road culverts throughout the state to increase salmon populations (see our previous blog post here). PLF filed an amicus brief arguing ̷ ...

???Yesterday,? PLF filed comments on Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) proposed amendments to the Greater Sage-Grouse Resource Management Plans in Colorado, ?Idaho, Oregon, Nevada and Northeastern Californian, Utah, and ?Wyoming. The Greater Sage-Grouse is a large ground-dwelling bird. Its habitat is spread across eleven western states where ...

The Service claims it is exempt from Regulatory Flexibility Act requirements because critical habitat designations impact only other federal agencies. But this claim is in error. While critical habitat designations do require federal agencies to manage critical habitat, the restrictions of the designations also directly affect small businesses, ma ...

Should federal executive branch agencies be accountable to Congress? For most people, the common-sense answer to that question is “yes.” Yet PLF attorneys regularly go head-to-head with government lawyers who seem to believe their agencies should be immune from such basic accountability. Case in point: Today, PLF was in federal court in ...