A hollow victory for a California car wash owner
On September 30, a California Labor Commissioner hearing officer dismissed a $249,007 wage citation against Christopher McKenna's Hermosa Beach business, Rock N Roll Car Wash. After a multi-day hearing, the officer found that the Commissioner failed to prove any of the alleged violations and dismissed the citation in its entirety. The decision f ...
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 ...
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 ...
Justice Gorsuch charts the path to “return, all the way, to the Constitution”
Last term, the Supreme Court took a major step toward restoring the separation of powers. In Trump v. Slaughter, the Court ruled that congressional limitations on the president's authority to remove commissioners of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) are unconstitutional. As Chief Justice John Roberts wrote, "Subordinates who exercise the Presid ...
Court finds constitutional violation in fishery council, lets rule stand anyway
A federal appeals court just handed the government a win in its fight to control how much fish American fishermen can catch—even after ruling that the officials who wrote the regulation were never lawfully appointed. On September 3, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit agreed that members of the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management ...
Nursing home takes fight for a jury trial to federal appeals court
The Seventh Amendment protects a common-sense right: When the government accuses you of wrongdoing and comes after your money or your livelihood, the people deciding your guilt or innocence should not be the same people who accused you in the first place. That separation keeps government power in check. Without it, an agency can act as accuser, jud ...
Pennsylvania’s centuries-old jury right faces a modern test
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court announced that it will hear the case of Pacific Legal Foundation client Elliot Goldberg—a financial professional who is challenging the State's authority to impose massive civil penalties without a jury trial. At his core, Elliot Goldberg is a problem solver. His success as an entrepreneur can be attributed in la ...
National Review : A Monumental Tug-of-War
Earlier this month, President Trump shrank two national monuments in Utah by 90 percent each, about 3 million acres in all. This is just the latest pull in the endless tug-of-war between presidents over public lands. The regulatory whiplash that has become the only reliable pattern in federal land management makes an elegant case for why the federa ...