Separation of Powers

On Monday morning, Pacific Legal Foundation heads back to the Supreme Court to fight for Chantell and Mike Sackett’s right to build a home on their own land. You’ll be able to listen to Sackett v. EPA oral arguments live on Monday at 10 a.m. Eastern Time. When the couple bought property near Priest Lake, … ...

The federal minimum wage set by Congress is $7.25. But the Department of Labor says Duke Bradford, an outdoor adventure guide in Colorado, must pay his guides $15/hour plus overtime—including on overnight trips—because the department considers Duke a government contractor.   Why? In Colorado, the federal government owns over a third of the lan ...

Although the Supreme Court likely won’t be talking much about guns and abortions this term, there will be fireworks on issues ranging from race preferences at colleges, to California’s politically correct bacon regulations, to the perennial question of what the heck is a wetland subject to federal control? Wrapped up in the court’ ...

On Monday, October 3, Pacific Legal Foundation senior attorney Damien Schiff will argue Sackett v. EPA at the Supreme Court. At issue is the scope of the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority to regulate wetlands under the Clean Water Act. More than 350 organizations, states, and members of Congress have filed amicus briefs in support o ...

DECEMBER 30, 2020, afternoon Most people were packing up their offices. It was nearly New Year’s Eve of an election year at the Health and Human Services (HHS) offices in Washington, DC. Regardless of the skullduggery that goes on there, DC is beautiful around the holidays. Congress is out, so the streets and sideways are … ...

It’s easy to skip over Constitution Day, September 17, on the calendar. Some might find it odd to have a holiday commemorating the signing of a document—especially a government document. But there’s a reason we celebrate Constitution Day: The Constitution was written for us—the generations of Americans who came after the founding, w ...

Is Congress nowadays too broken to enact significant legislation? Some critics of the Supreme Court’s recent decision in West Virginia v. EPA, a challenge to the EPA’s Clean Power Plan, say so. … ...

During his presidential campaign, Joe Biden revealed that he is “not a fan of charter schools,” a bad take that is now, most unfortunately, influencing education policy. Earlier this year, Biden’s Department of Education (ED) proposed drastic policy changes that hinder the creation of new charter schools. These rules officially we ...

Unless you’re a legal wonk, you probably don’t spend a lot of time thinking about the Supreme Court’s use of rational basis scrutiny. In fact, it’s likely you’ve never encountered the term before. Whether you are familiar with it or not, the fate of many high-profile federal lawsuits, including the controversial Dobbs ...