When California tries to regulate Pennsylvania trucking
What if Florida tried to tell Michigan how to manage its lakes? Or Texas dictated Oregon's school curriculum? Sounds absurd, right? Yet that's exactly what's happening to Pennsylvania's trucking industry—except California is calling the shots. On American Heroes with Kathy Hoekstra, Brian Wanner, president of Peters Brothers, shares how Pennsy ...
SCOTUS hears oral arguments in tariff challenges—PLF legal experts weigh in on hearing
Yesterday morning, a global audience tuned in to the U.S. Supreme Court's livestream to listen to oral arguments in the lawsuits over President Trump's "Liberation Day" tariffs. Attorneys for the government presented arguments supporting the Trump administration's rationale for enacting the tariffs, while two sets of attorneys asked the ...
Congress neglected its legislative authority again. SCOTUS has a chance to fix it.
On Monday, Pacific Legal Foundation filed an amicus brief in support of Hernán Lopez and Full Play Group in a combined case: Full Play Group, S.A. v. United States, et al. and Lopez v. United States, et al. If the Supreme Court grants certiorari for these combined cases, the Court can address Congress's continual failure to exercise its constituti ...
Dismemberment, dissolution, and the Constitution—celebrating the 238th anniversary of Federalist Paper No. 2
Over two hundred years ago this month, the New York newspapers began publishing what is now known as The Federalist Papers. Led by Alexander Hamilton, The Federalist Papers included a series of 85 polemical essays written to convince New Yorkers to support the Constitution and the preservation of the Union. While today is a spooky holiday, known ...
Nebraska’s cruel crackdown threatens vital care for adults with developmental disabilities
Injustice is lurking around the quiet corners of Lincoln, Nebraska. The Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) is threatening to strip away the proven and personalized care of adults with developmental disabilities, by dismantling the programs that gave them independence and hope. For nearly two decades, Integrated Life Choices ...
Wall Street Journal : When the Bureaucrats Come for Therapy Dolphins
Americans expect the government to keep them safe from drug traffickers, human smugglers and violent criminals. Add "therapists who help patients through dolphin encounters" to the federal bureaucracy's list of societal outlaws. In Hawaii, Eliza Wille and Lisa Denning are part of a small community of professionals who had built their lives aroun ...
Sharing administrative judges is prevalent, and it undermines the Constitution
There's an entire quasi-judicial system of administrative law judges (ALJs) within the federal bureaucracy who hear cases brought by agencies against defendants. Often these judges are employees of the very agencies bringing the cases before them, but sometimes they're on loan from other agencies. Very little is known about how this works or how pr ...
National Review : When Financial Industry Regulators Are Judge, Prosecutor, and Beneficiary
Imagine being dragged into a courtroom where the judge works for the prosecutor — and if (or, when) you lose, this judge-prosecutor pockets the money. Welcome to the dystopian world of FINRA, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. FINRA, a "self-regulatory organization," enforces federal securities laws but operates without the safeguard ...
A database to track the administrative state like never before
As long as people have governed each other, leaders have passed the mantle of responsibility to others. As far back as 1689, John Locke wrote, "The legislative can have no power to transfer their authority of making laws, and place it in other hands." In other words, legislatures—not bureaucrats—should make laws. But that's been much more of ...