Property Rights

"Workforce housing" fees — a bad idea that drives up the cost of housing and unconstitutionally places the burden of other people's housing on individual property owners — may soon run their course in Wyoming. Senate File 40, if it passes, will provide welcome relief to property owners throughout the state by codifying what the Constitution and ...

If the government severely restricts your use of your property, should you receive "just compensation," as promised in the Fifth Amendment's Takings Clause? That's the question presented in regulatory takings cases, in which the property owner still owns the property but cannot make full use of it. In Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes's well-worn words ...

A remarkable story emerged as The New York Times rewrote an infamous 1970s trope when it revealed that scientists had invented an 'endangered species' -- a tiny fish called the snail darter -- to stop a southeastern energy project. "Saving" the snail darter became a model for how to leverage laws designed to protect the environment to kill energy a ...

It's been four weeks since deadly fires ripped through the coastal Los Angeles community of Pacific Palisades and through Altadena at the base of the San Gabriel Mountains. Schools, businesses, and social gathering places were devastated by the flames. Entire neighborhoods of family homes were wiped off the map. As shown time and time again, Ameri ...

According to Bloomberg,  new home construction sank to its lowest level in years, comparable only to the downturn during the pandemic-induced shutdowns of 2020. Financial experts quoted in the piece blame restrictive monetary policy — interest rates are high and so are mortgages, making new home construction an expensive endeavor.   Monetar ...

There are countless stories of governments tramping on individual rights, causing extreme financial burdens along with mental and emotional stress. For PLF client Tom Hamann, the violation of his property rights and the subsequent economic losses and stress were accompanied by physical injuries that have forever altered his life. On top of fighting ...

In 2021, the Texas Legislature passed Texas House Bill 20, a law that bars social media platforms like Facebook, X, and WhatsApp from banning, censoring, or manually demoting accounts within a social media platform's algorithm so that fewer people see their content based on what those accounts have posted (de-boosting). This bill and others like it ...

The government took his home in 2018 over a $588 property tax debt. But a few days before Christmas 2024, Kevin Fair, an ailing Nebraska widower, found out he was getting back the title to his home.   Now a GoFundMe has raised over $16,000 so Kevin, who recently had a stroke, can build a ramp for his home, make some other repairs, and meet upco ...

There are legal victories, and then there are legal victories—court rulings so decisive, so sharply written, that they can only be considered a judicial knockout.  Case in point: Al Hadian and Ralph Bookout's New Year's Eve victory against the California Coastal Commission.  The (brief) backstory  Al and Ralph sued the Commission in 2022 ...