Merrifield v. Lockyer
Pest control entrepreneur defeats California’s unconstitutional licensing law
This landmark victory freed California’s nonpesticide animal control services from unnecessary, burdensome licensing mandates, gave consumers more choice in pest control techniques and providers, and cleared the way for entrepreneurs in the states comprising the Ninth Circuit.to pursue the occupations of their choosing and exercise their constitutional right to earn a living.
Biggs v. Betlatch
Voters demand supermajority approval for tax increases
A bare majority of the Arizona state legislature passed a law requiring the director of the state Health Care Cost Containment System – which governs the state Medicaid program – to levy an “assessment” on hospitals to pay for Medicaid expansion. Legislators who opposed the law sued to invalidate it on the grounds that the bill created a tax that required a supermajority vote in the Legislature. Lower courts upheld the law. PLF filed an amicus brief urging the Arizona Supreme Court to grant review and protect the interests of taxpayers and the integrity of government by enforcing constitutional, statutory, and regulatory restraints on taxing and spending.
Doyle v. Taxpayers for Public Education
States may not discriminate against religious organizations
The Douglas County Board of Education’s Choice Scholarship Program offers tuition scholarships to eligible students who attend qualifying religious or non-religious private schools. The Colorado Supreme Court struck down the program as violating the Colorado constitution’s prohibition of any state support of religion. School choice proponents petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to review the case. After the Supreme Court invalidated a Missouri funding program that discriminated against religious institutions as violating the First Amendment, the Court granted the Colorado petition and remanded it to the state courts for reconsideration in light of the Missouri decision.
Armstrong v. Kadas
Supporting school choice for all – Christians included
PLF represents parents of a child in a faith-based school and an association of Christian schools in a challenge to a regulation implementing Montana’s scholarship tax credit law. The regulation forbids religiously affiliated schools from participating in the tax credit program. PLF challenged the regulation as violating the First Amendment’s protection for freedom of religion and the Fourteenth Amendment’s guarantee of equal protection of the law. The federal court dismissed the case pending a state court’s decision in a related case. PLF appealed the abstention to the Ninth Circuit. The state court struck down the regulation and the state appealed to the Montana Supreme Court.
Hardie v. National Collegiate Athletic Association
Ban on felon-coaches is not racial discrimination
Dominic Hardie is a high school basketball coach who is prohibited from coaching in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)-sponsored tournaments because he is a convicted felon. He sued the NCAA on the theory that the felon-ban violates Title II of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits racial discrimination in places of public accommodation, because it causes a disparate impact on African-Americans. As amicus, PLF argued that Title II does not permit disparate impact claims. The Ninth Circuit rejected Hardie’s lawsuit, holding that the felon-ban did not amount to a disparate impact violation, even if Title II does allow such claims. Hardie filed a motion for rehearing.
School Board of Palm Beach County, Florida
Unions attack–but can’t kill–Florida charter schools
The School Board of Palm Beach County illegally denied South Palm Beach Charter School’s application to start a new charter school, claiming that the school lacks “innovation” and fails to fulfill the state charter statute’s requirement that charter schools “[e]ncourage the use of innovative learning methods.” The charter school applicant appealed to the State Board of Education, which held that the application should have been approved and the Florida Court of Appeal, where PLF participated as amicus, affirmed that decision. The School Board petitioned the Florida Supreme Court to review the case.
Anderson v. Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County
Homeowners have a constitutional right to rent to travelers
Two Nashville ordinances banned any form of advertising short-term rentals with signage on the property, and capped the number of non-owner-occupied short-term rentals to three percent of the properties in each census tract. Rachel and P.J. Anderson periodically rent out their home via Airbnb and sued to strike down the law as violating their First Amendment right to advertise their home and their Fourteenth Amendment right to equal protection. Nashville repealed the advertising ban and a trial court ruled that the remaining provisions were unconstitutionally vague. Nashville appealed and PLF filed an amicus brief supporting the Andersons and all Nashville property owners.
Siena Corporation v. Mayor and City Council of Rockville, Maryland
Courts must not determine a law’s constitutionality based solely on government assurances of good will
Siena Corporation wanted to build a self-storage facility in Rockville, Maryland, but was thwarted when the city, at the behest of NIMBY neighbors, adopted a last-minute zoning change preventing the project. Siena sued but the district court upheld the zoning change as a “rational” exercise of the city’s police power. Siena appealed, arguing that the Due Process Clause of the Constitution and its right to earn a living were violated and that the court must look beyond the government’s bare assertion that it had a good reason for its actions. PLF filed an amicus brief arguing that constitutional protections mean little if the courts are willing to rubber-stamp government action.
T.H. v. Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation
Causation, and not deep pockets, should dictate liability
In 2007, the expectant mother of twins used a generic form of an asthma medication for the off-label purpose of preventing pre-term labor. Novartis was the former manufacturer of the brand-name version of the medication until it sold its rights to the product in 2001. The twins were diagnosed with autism in 2012, allegedly tied to the medication. They sued Novartis, claiming the company knew of the dangers prior to 2001, had a duty to revise the label warnings at that time, and the failure to do so contributed to the twins’ autism. The California Court of Appeal held they could state a claim against Novartis for negligence and the company appealed. PLF filed an amicus brief in the California Supreme Court opposing “innovator liability.”