Articles

For half a century, the Andrews family has owned a little over 16 acres of land in Mentor, Ohio, just outside of Cleveland. Recent developments have transformed the neighborhood from a rural residential area into a lively mixed-use community with residential, office, commercial, industrial, medical, and other uses. An old, dilapidated family home u ...

“California faces a severe housing crisis.” That’s what the state legislature said in 2016. As part of a slew of legislative reforms intended to address the crisis, the state passed new laws designed to simplify and expedite the process for building a particular type of housing, one that is an “essential component of Califor ...

California is in the midst of a severe housing shortage. With options limited and prices skyrocketing, the legislature in 2019 passed a slew of reforms making it easier for homeowners to build accessory dwelling units, or ADUs, on their properties. ADUs are small homes located on the same lot as an existing single- or multi-family … ...

Before the last few weeks, many Americans had probably never heard of “qualified immunity.” But as a result of the nationwide protests against abusive policing, this esoteric legal doctrine is now widely understood as a significant impediment to the sound enforcement of constitutional law. The call to “End Qualified Immunity!̶ ...

The Prince of Motown himself, Marvin Gaye, sang that “Life’s a Game of Give and Take.” But for county treasuries across the state of Michigan, it’s more like a game of take, and take, and take some more. The Perez family is fighting Michigan’s predatory home equity theft policy, which allows counties to take property ...

Many American communities are suffering from a housing shortage. Affordable housing is disappearing, new homes aren’t being built quickly enough, and the racial disparities in housing availability are widening. In Michigan alone, the numbers are stark: a recent report on housing needs by the Michigan State Housing Development Authority (MSHDA ...

Can a state prohibit new residents from doing business in the alcoholic beverage industry? In a 7-2 opinion in Tennessee Wine & Spirits Retailers Association v. Thomas, today the Supreme Court answered with a resounding “no way.” The Court affirmed that states may not discriminate on the basis of state residence, and that protection ...

Last Friday, Pacific Legal Foundation helped Arron and Arthur Benedetti to challenge Marin County’s new forced-farming mandate that requires landowners to remain personally engaged in commercial agriculture in perpetuity as a condition of granting a building permit. Arron and Arthur are the sons of the late Willie Benedetti, who worked with P ...

Back in 2014, PLF urged the U.S. Supreme Court to review the Ninth Circuit’s decision upholding California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) against constitutional challenge. The LCFS regulates transportation fuels using a “life-cycle” analysis, meaning that it fictionally assigns a “carbon intensity score” based ...