Separation of Powers

Last week, by a 6–3 vote, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the federal government agency in Nuclear Regulatory Commission v. Texas. This controversy centered on a license granted by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) to a private company for the storage of "spent nuclear fuel" (known colloquially as "nuclear waste") in Andrews County, Te ...

The Constitution's Bill of Rights tells us what the government can't do—for example, it can't stop us from expressing ourselves. But when originally ratified in 1791, the Bill of Rights applied only to the federal government, not the states. James Madison, the main author of the Bill of Rights, wanted at least some of the amendments to apply to ...

"Justice is the end of government." —James Madison, Federalist 51 When people are wronged by the government, they can come to Pacific Legal Foundation for justice. Meanwhile, PLF is also constantly working outside courtrooms to make laws more just. In the 2025 legislative session, Pacific Legal Foundation partnered with state legislators and al ...

Yesterday a federal judge rejected a joint motion to vacate a $105,000 fine paid by Pacific Legal Foundation client Townstone Financial in a settlement, even though the government admits the fine never should have been paid. Vacating the settlement would open a "Pandora's Box," the judge said, calling the government's reversal on the case "breatht ...

This month, Magna Carta, or the Great Charter, celebrates its 810th birthday. To commemorate the occasion, I recently made a pilgrimage to London's British Library to visit one of the few surviving original copies of the 1215 charter. While hordes of tourists huddled around framed scraps of handwritten Beatles lyrics and Jane Austen relics, I made ...

"To the end it may be a government of laws and not of men." This ideal comes from the part of the Massachusetts Constitution establishing the state's separation of powers between its three branches of government. The separation of powers is indispensable to the rule of law. Whether at the state or federal level, the separation of powers keeps the ...

Does adherence to the separation of powers risk nuclear war? The federal government seems to think so. Fortunately, the U.S. Court of International Trade last week struck down President Donald Trump's tariffs as unlawful in companion cases brought by small businesses and 12 states. But the litigation will continue, likely up to the U.S. Supre ...

In the new short film The SEC Disclosure Divide: The Cost of Compliance, The Federalist Society's Regulatory Transparency Project takes aim at a critical but overlooked question: Why are federal agencies making sweeping rules without Congress? The film explores how the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)—originally created to ensure tr ...

In a wide-ranging conversation—touching on tariffs, COVID-19, protectionism, and American individualism—Anastasia Boden, senior attorney at Pacific Legal Foundation, spoke with Carol Roth, entrepreneur and bestselling author of You Will Own Nothing and The War on Small Business. Here are a few highlights from the conversation. (You can scroll d ...