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Supreme Court orders three U.S. Courts of Appeals to reconsider cases upholding restrictions on speech

July 01, 2015 | By SHAUNEEN WERLINGER

On Monday, the Supreme Court ordered three federal appellate courts to reconsider their decisions upholding sign restrictions in light of its recent decision in Reed v. Town of Gilbert. The Court emphasized in Reed that government regulation of speech is content-based (and thus presumptively unconstitutional) if the law explicitly “draws dist ...

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PLF’s John Groen to testify to Congress about property rights

July 07, 2015 | By SHAUNEEN WERLINGER

PLF’s DC Center is delighted to have another of our colleagues from the West Coast (or is it the Left Coast?) visit us to present expert testimony to Congress. Principal Attorney John Groen will testify on Thursday, July 9, 2015 at a hearing before the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on the Constitution and Civil Justice. R ...

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More linguistic alchemy from EPA

July 17, 2015 | By SHAUNEEN WERLINGER

Dictionaries are apparently no match for EPA’s seemingly insatiable appetite for regulatory power. As we’ve noted, EPA has gone from exploiting ambiguous words to redefining words in a way that defies their common meaning. Only in EPA’s warped world does “navigable” include unnavigable, “surface water” inc ...

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Second Circuit upholds protectionist teeth-whitening policy in Sensational Smiles v. Mullen

August 09, 2015 | By SHAUNEEN WERLINGER

In a recent disappointing opinion, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit upheld the Connecticut Dental Commission’s policy of restricting the use of LED teeth-whitening lights to licensed dentists – despite the fact that dentists are not trained to use them. Under the policy, entrepreneurs in the cosmetic teeth-whitening industry ...

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Frequently asked questions about our Obamacare challenge

October 23, 2015 | By SHAUNEEN WERLINGER

As readers of this blog are aware, PLF is preparing to file a cert. petition on Monday asking the Supreme Court to hear our challenge to Obamacare, Sissel v. U.S. Dep’t of Health & Human Servs., et al.  Here are some FAQs about the case: Who is Matthew Sissel? Matthew Sissel is an artist, entrepreneur, … ...

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PLF to participate with members of Congress at press conference on Sissel v. HHS Obamacare challenge

December 01, 2015 | By SHAUNEEN WERLINGER

Todd Gaziano, Executive Director of PLF’s DC Center, will join Rep. Trent Franks, Rep. Louie Gohmert, and Rep. Rob Bishop at a press conference tomorrow at 3:15pm EST in room H-137 of the U.S. Capitol. The press conference will announce the filing of an amicus brief by the Congressmen and 43 of their colleagues that urges the … ...

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Sissel v. HHS featured as SCOTUSBlog's "Petition of the Day"

December 09, 2015 | By SHAUNEEN WERLINGER

SCOTUSblog, the leading news source for Supreme Court coverage, has featured PLF’s cert. petition in Sissel v. HHS as its “petition of the day.” This recognition means that SCOTUSblog’s publisher has identified the case as “raising one or more questions that have a reasonable chance of being granted.” The governm ...

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Free speech prevails in Fourth Circuit do-over

January 31, 2016 | By SHAUNEEN WERLINGER

After nearly four years of litigation, property owners’ First Amendment rights were finally vindicated by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in Central Radio Company v. City of Norfolk.  The court ruled that the City of Norfolk unconstitutionally prohibited the plaintiffs (who were protesting the government’s taking of t ...

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PLF's Shauneen Werlinger to participate in Hawkes discussion at Cato Institute on March 14

February 29, 2016 | By SHAUNEEN WERLINGER

On Monday, March 14th, I will be participating in a discussion hosted by Cato Institute entitled “Do Landowners Have a Right to Challenge Federal Regulation of Their Property? A Preview of Army Corps of Engineers v. Hawkes on the Eve of Oral Argument.”  Professor Steven Eagle of George Mason University School of Law and Ilya Shapir ...