Articles

What are transferable development rights?

April 30, 2010 | By LUKE WAKE

We all know that the Fifth Amendment protects our right to use and enjoy our property. But, that doesn’t stop government regulators from trying to find innovative ways to get around the Fifth Amendment. In recent years land use planners have begun experimenting with “transferable development rights” as a way to avoid liability un ...

Articles

A property owner gets his day in court

February 04, 2011 | By DAMIEN SCHIFF

Yesterday, PLF scored a win in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in Barnum Timber Co. v. EPA.  Pacific Legal Foundation represents Barnum Timber, a small, family-run timber company based in Humboldt County, California. Redwood Creek, which runs through Barnum’s timberlands, has been designated by EPA as an impaired waterbody under Section 3 ...

Articles

Eternal vigilance the price of freedom

July 23, 2012 | By REED HOPPER

“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance” is generally ascribed to Thomas Jefferson.  Given Jefferson’s love for freedom, it’s an apt attribution.  But it has been reported that John Philpot Curran expressed this same sentiment in a speech upon the Right of Election in 1790 (published in a book titled “Speeches on ...

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I spy with my little eye a “water of the United States”

December 11, 2012 | By JENNIFER THOMPSON

Or so says the United States Army Corps of Engineers about the pictured property.  Can you see the water on this property?  We can’t, which is why we are taking the Corps to court in our newest lawsuit, Smith v. U. S. Army Corps of Engineers. Here’s the story: PLF clients Peter and Frankie Smith bought … ...

Articles

Barnum Timber Co. v. EPA, standing to sue, and the Clean Water Act

May 05, 2014 | By DAMIEN SCHIFF

Last last month, after more than a decade of litigation, we were able to settle amicably our lawsuit on behalf of Barnum Timber Co. against the EPA over the agency’s designation of Redwood Creek as an impaired water under Section 303(d) of the Clean Water Act. Interesting in that, also last month, the District Court … ...

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Florida county ignores entrepreneurs’ property rights and hundreds of years of law

August 28, 2014 | By CHRISTINA MARTIN

If you’ve ever bought a house or piece of land, you probably paid for a title search and title insurance.  A title search makes sure that the seller actually owns the property, free from any undisclosed liens or other third-party interests. Title insurance protects you from the financial loss that could accompany any interests that … ...

Articles

PLF notches another win for property rights

March 18, 2015 | By MARK MILLER

This week, Florida’s Martin County Commission accepted settlement terms that leave our clients, Bob and Anita Breinig, no longer facing onerous fines and the imminent loss of their dream: their popular Flash Beach Grille restaurant in Hobe Sound. Instead, the Breinigs find themselves with their property rights intact, and they stand ready ...

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PLF files brief with North Carolina Supreme Court in takings case

November 06, 2015 | By MARK MILLER

The Pacific Legal Foundation and the Civitas Institute Center for Law and Freedom (CLF)* together filed an amicus brief in an important takings case in the North Carolina Supreme Court today. The facts of the case are straightforward, as we explain in our brief: The North Carolina Department of Transportation (DOT) created “transportation co ...

Articles

PLF files federal challenge to agricultural union trespass regulation

February 10, 2016 | By CHRIS KIESER

In 1975, California enacted the Agricultural Labor Relations Act principally to govern relations between the United Farm Workers union and agricultural employers. While the Union and their interests had lobbied for a provision in the Act allowing labor organizers to access private employer property to solicit worker support, the legislature did not ...