‘Mountain man’ continues legal battle challenging government bait-and-switch
Veteran and cowboy poet Wil Wilkins has lived in the Montana mountains his entire life. The "mountain man" generally spends his days working as a stonemason and blacksmith to create detailed, artisan pieces sought out by interior designers. He also devotes his energy to combatting government abuse—including the bait-and-switch that opened his ...
National Review : Seize, Sell, Profit
In the despotic tradition of officeholders whose self-regard exceeds the bounds of their office, meet Patricia DePriest, tax assessor for Union Township in Isabella County, Mich. DePriest believed a family violated her personal vision of the law and set the wheels in motion to deprive them of their home and savings. And now, her overreach has becom ...
Rhode Island court protects homeowner from unconstitutional permit demands
A coastal Rhode Island property owner secured a major victory last month when a judge entered final orders granting a preliminary injunction preventing the State's Coastal Resources Management Council (CRMC) from attaching unconstitutional conditions to a permit request. PLF client David Welch has been tangling with the CRMC for years. In 2023, ...
Tennessee town celebrates swift legal victory
A small town in Tennessee rang in the new year by celebrating a legal victory after a private group rapidly withdrew its lawsuit rather than defend its claims in court. In November 2025, the Alabama-based organization Tennessee Riverkeeper filed a short-lived lawsuit against the City of Luttrell, Tennessee, under the Clean Water Act's "citizen s ...
Bloomberg Law : Supreme Court Gets Another Chance to End Government Home Theft
A decade ago, the Pung family of Isabella County, Mich., was hit with an improper property tax bill totaling $2,240, which included interest and fees. Rather than own up to its mistake, the government foreclosed on the Pungs' property, confiscating the whole home for a tax that never should have been due. What followed was a bureaucratic torture ...
On the anniversary of the Bill of Rights, we have the Anti-Federalists to thank
On this day 234 years ago, the Bill of Rights was officially ratified. With two centuries of examples showing us how willing governments are to ignore even these enumerated rights, it's astonishing that those first ten amendments almost didn't make it into the Constitution at all. If not for a small group of determined Anti-Federalists—and the ...
PLF files amicus brief against Louisiana’s attempt to take private land for profit
In 2024, the Plaquemines Port Harbor & Terminal District—a political subdivision of the state of Louisiana—launched a troubling campaign against a property owner by attempting to seize private land on the cheap via eminent domain, lease it to a private company, and pocket the profit. On December 5, Pacific Legal Foundation filed an amicu ...
Victory after two decades : Florida Supreme Court upholds victory for Shands family
After 20 long years of legal battles, the Shands family has won their fight for justice. Last week, the Florida Supreme Court declined to review a lower court decision that vindicated the property rights of Rodney Shands and his siblings, paving the way for the family to finally make use of the island that bears their family name. In 1956, Dr. R ...
More Americans are facing Fourth Amendment violations at the border
The Fourth Amendment provides that people shall "be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures," and no warrant shall be issued without "probable cause." Yet, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers routinely violate both provisions, acting in accordance with a 2018 Directive that requ ...