Separation of Powers

The bald eagle was listed as a protected species in the lower 48 States under the Endangered Species Act in 1978.  Fortunately, by 1999, the eagle had sufficiently recovered for U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologists to recommend the delisting of the American icon.  However, the eagle languished on the protected list for years without any a ...

One of my long-standing pet peeves is the way advocates of “judicial restraint” often mis-quote Alexander Hamilton’s brilliant Federalist 78. They’re particularly fond of the Federalist 78 phrase “if they the courts should be disposed to exercise WILL instead of JUDGMENT, the consequence would equally be the substituti ...

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 … ...

The manatee population continues to grow in Florida, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission’s newest survey results. Each winter, when weather conditions permit, the FWC conducts an aerial survey with a team of observers who fly around the state’s warmer waters where manatees typically congregate. Last year, the FWC count ...

Today, PLF sent a warning to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that unless the agency adopts its proposed rule to reclassify the manatee within 60-days, PLF will sue on behalf of Save Crystal River, Inc., to compel downlisting the status of the species from endangered to threatened. It is disappointing, but not surprising that … ...

Earlier this week the Supreme Court decided not to hear the Arlen and Cindy Foster’s case against the U.S. Department of Agriculture, over the Department’s illegal determination that their farm contains a federally protected wetland. The petition asked the Supreme Court to decide whether judges should interpret federal law, or whether ...

In 2014, the federal government designated thousands of acres in New Mexico as “critical habitat” for the jaguar. The designation is absurd, because as cat-lovers know, jaguars prefer the wet, tropical climates of Central and South America forests, to the dry, arid wilderness of the Southwest. The designation should also trouble liberty ...

Last week PLF filed this amicus brief in the Supreme Court of the United States in Gloucester County School Board v. G.G. The question in this case is whether federal judges interpret federal law, or whether low level agency bureaucrats do. PLF takes the position that judges have the Constitutional responsibility to independently read and interpre ...

Next Tuesday I will be arguing on behalf of Morning Star Packing Co., the National Tax Limitation Committee, and several other clients in PLF’s challenge to California’s unconstitutional auction of air emissions permits. This case will determine whether California can continue raising billions in illegal taxes by auctioning off permits ...