Property Rights

At Pacific Legal Foundation, we're leading the charge against home equity theft—a practice where local governments seize far more than what a property owner owes in taxes. Few fight as passionately as PLF Senior Attorney Christina Martin, who has spent more than a decade defending homeowners nationwide. On this episode of American Heroes, ...

In 1606, Britain was in a state of perpetual defense. The nearly 20-year Anglo-Spanish war had finally ended two years prior, and the Crown was eager to rebuild his now-depleted resources. If the war had taught him anything, it was how quickly England could be attacked. Military readiness wasn't just prudent—it was necessary. Foreign threats a ...

Mike Pung's life has been shaped by two driving forces: devotion to family and a refusal to back down from bullies. For over 15 years, those guiding principles have carried him through a drawn-out legal battle with Isabella County, Michigan. What began as a dispute over a legitimate tax exemption on Mike's late nephew's property ended with the C ...

Oakland County, Michigan, stole Uri Rafaeli's financial assets in 2014. Three years earlier, Rafaeli had purchased a $60,000 rental property. He paid his taxes in 2012 and 2013, but he mistakenly had underpaid his taxes in 2011. When Rafaeli discovered the delinquent taxes, he paid the debt immediately. However, he miscalculated the accrued interes ...

Historically, New Mexico protected property owners' right to restrict public access to their private land, including streambeds. But a 2022 New Mexico Supreme Court opinion gutted that right, allowing the New Mexico Game Commission and Department of Game and Fish to instead penalize landowners for posting anti-trespassing signage and fences—priva ...

Drawing on centuries of warnings, the Framers included the Excessive Fines Clause in the Bill of Rights to protect individuals from unrestrained governments wielding monetary penalties that are wildly disproportionate to the offense committed. The ink on the Bill of Rights has been dry for over 200 years and yet, unlike free speech, due process, ...

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 ...

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 ...

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, ...