National Review : Congress Can Finally Drag Federal ‘Guidance’ into the Light
The late Justice Antonin Scalia popularized the likely apocryphal story of Nero's edicts, in which the bloodthirsty Roman emperor is alleged to have posted his laws on high pillars so that they would be "harder to read and easier to transgress." Yet today, in our republic, which prides itself on the rule of law, it may shock many to learn that t ...
This retired general fought for his country. Now he’s fighting for his property.
After an impressive military career protecting the United States against foreign threats, Brigadier General Bill Don Farris is now fighting his own government for the right to exclude dangerous hunting dogs from his property. Billy Don Farris grew up in a military family in Northeast Texas. His father served, his two brothers served, and there ...
Washington Examiner : Women’s birth freedom shouldn’t require a judge’s order
For one Nebraska mother, birth freedom came just in time. After a court granted a temporary restraining order in a lawsuit brought by Pacific Legal Foundation, Nebraska mother Hope Lindstrom was able to give birth at home with the assistance of a certified nurse-midwife on April 26 — the first CNM-assisted home birth in Nebraska history. Th ...
The Center Square : Looking to increase your state’s employment? Reduce regulation
When governors want more jobs, they usually reach for tax credits, development grants, or subsidies for a favored factory. Yet every state already controls a broader and more durable economic-policy lever: its own administrative code. Our new research suggests that cutting state regulatory restrictions by 25 percent is associated with 4.4 percen ...
A Supreme Court preview : PLF cases at the long conference
The Supreme Court formally begins its new fall term with oral arguments on October 5. It will hold its "long conference" the week prior to consider the petitions submitted during its summer recess. This year, the Justices will consider three PLF petitions challenging warrantless surveillance and compelled speech. A lobsterman's fight for his Fourt ...
The Hill : Data center hysteria is our latest group chat gone wild
Remember 2018, when every city council, major airline, and coffee giant suddenly decided that plastic sip-lids were the frontline of planetary salvation? It was the great Plastic Straw Panic. Celebrities made somber videos, corporate PR teams scrambled, and public policy shifted on a dime. The entire crusade was built on an eye-popping stat repe ...
American Heroes : Lindsay Hoopes fights to save her family’s Napa winery
Lindsay Hoopes never planned to run her family's Napa winery. But when her father became seriously ill, she came home to carry on what he had built. Now she's fighting to save it. In this episode of American Heroes, Lindsay sits down with Kathy Hoekstra to tell the story herself: How a dispute with Napa County over wine tastings and other win ...
Municipal-securities advisor takes his jury trial fight to a federal appeals court
On September 17, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit heard oral arguments in Choice Advisors, LLC, and Matthias O'Meara v. Securities and Exchange Commission—a case that will help decide whether the SEC can strip Americans of their right to make a living through its own in-house courts. PLF senior attorney Oliver Dunford argued bef ...
239 years later, the Constitution still depends on the people
On September 17, 1787, delegates in Philadelphia signed the finalized U.S. Constitution. Two hundred thirty-nine years later, Constitution Day seems to hit a little harder than it has before. Perhaps it's because we just celebrated America's 250th birthday two months ago. Or maybe it's because we lost constitutional scholar Gordon S. Wood a few wee ...