Articles

Pride: an intense and selfish desire for something, especially wealth, power   We all have a slightly distorted idea about who we are and how other people see us. We tell stories about ourselves, rewriting history in our heads to fit narrative myths in which we're the main character—the hero. This is the origin story the Environment ...

On Monday, October 3, Pacific Legal Foundation senior attorney Damien Schiff will argue Sackett v. EPA at the Supreme Court. At issue is the scope of the Environmental Protection Agency's authority to regulate wetlands under the Clean Water Act. More than 350 organizations, states, and members of Congress have filed amicus briefs in support of t ...

Mike and Chantell Sackett bought a parcel of land in 2004 near Priest Lake, Idaho, with dreams of building their family home on the site. Construction began in 2007—but stopped almost immediately when the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) stepped in and issued a compliance order, claiming their land is a federally protected wetland and accusi ...

Mike and Chantell Sackett have been fighting the EPA in court for 15 years. Here's a timeline of their case: 2004: Mike and Chantell Sackett purchase a vacant lot in a residential subdivision near Priest Lake, Idaho. At its north end, the lot is bounded by paved Kalispell Bay Road, on the other side of which runs a manmade ditch. To the south of ...

From time to time," Ronald Reagan said in his first inaugural address, on January 20, 1981, "we've been tempted to believe that society has become too complex to be managed by self-rule" and that "government by an elite group is superior to government for, by, and of the people."   That is precisely the justification we frequently hear for toda ...

After the Supreme Court announced its 6-3 ruling in West Virginia v. EPA, many accused the Court of "destroying environmental protections" (Vox) and "leaving Biden with few tools to combat climate change (The New York Times).   But as several PLF attorneys told the media this week, the West Virginia decision actually restores the power to make ...

In a recent article, former Environmental Protection Agency Assistant Administrator Susan Parker Bodine recalls rebuffing a proposed rule that would have required local communities to obtain a costly Clean Water Act permit to transfer their sewage to larger, consolidated municipal treatment systems for treatment and discharge. When Bodine confronte ...

After a 15-year legal battle with the federal government, the Sackett family will finally get their day at the Supreme Court … again.  The Supreme Court is often viewed as the "end of the road" for a case. The reality, however, is much more complicated, as Sackett v. EPA shows.   The Sacketts have been in court fighting for the right t ...

Following government rules is often a tough enough task. But when federal agencies secretly move their own rules' goalposts and then threaten millions of dollars in fines for noncompliance, it can be devastating. Ask Jack LaPant. In 2011, the rural farmer in Tehama County, Calif., planted 900 acres of winter wheat on his property. Before he ever ...