Cedar Point Nursery v. Hassid
Supreme Court affirms property rights for California fruit growers
Cedar Point Nursery and Fowler Packing Company are California growers that produce fruit for millions of Americans. Collectively, they employ around 3,000 Californians. In 2015, the United Farm Workers (UFW) viewed the workers as ripe for the picking and sent union organizers to storm the workplaces during harvest time to encourage them to unionize ...
Minnesota Voters Alliance v. Mansky
Victory for Free Speech! U.S. Supreme Court ruling protects political self-expression
The U.S. Supreme Court struck down a polling-place dress code in Minnesota, upholding free speech rights across the nation and protecting the right of Americans to peacefully express their political views at the polls. PLF represented Minnesota voters, including Andy Cilek, who showed up at his polling place wearing a t-shirt that read "Don't t ...
Knick v. Township of Scott, Pennsylvania
Supreme Court affirms that property rights are among Americans' most important constitutional rights.
In 2013, government agents forced Rose Knick to allow public access to a suspected gravesite on her farmland. Rose sued over the unconstitutional property taking. But a federal court refused to hear her federal claim citing the 1985 Supreme Court decision Williamson County. Rose has asked the Court to overturn this precedent so property rights are ...
Weyerhaeuser/Markle v. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Government-sanctioned private land grabs over absent animals are illegal
The U.S. Supreme Court opened its fall term on October 1, 2018, with the famous "frog case" out of Louisiana. That's where federal regulators declared more than 1,500 acres of private land as a critical habitat for the dusky gopher frog—a species not seen in the state for more than 50 years. PLF client Edward Poitevent owns 95 percent of the land ...
Murr v. Wisconsin
Wisconsin undermines property rights by “merging” separate lots
The Murr family owned two separately deeded lots that were purchased independently by their parents in the 1960s. They built a small cabin on one lot and held the other one as an investment for the future. But when the time came to sell, subsequently enacted regulations forbade the Murrs from making any productive use of the vacant lot – and with ...
Kent Recycling Services, LLC v. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
Landowners win right to challenge wetland determinations in court
Kent Recycling Services wanted to establish a solid waste landfill in Louisiana. But an overzealous Corps of Engineers issued a Jurisdictional Determination claiming the property contained wetlands subject to federal regulation under the Clean Water Act. Kent disputed this claim and sued. Lower courts rejected his lawsuit as unripe on the theory th ...
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers v. Hawkes
Landowners win right to challenge wetland determinations in court
Hawkes Company is a family-owned business in Minnesota that harvests peat moss, for landscaping. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers improperly claimed jurisdiction over the property as regulated wetlands. This put Hawkes in the untenable position of (1) abandoning all use of the land at great loss; (2) spending several hundred thousand dollars to see ...
St. Johns River Water Management District v. Koontz
There’s no “off site” exception to Fifth Amendment’s takings clause
Coy A. Koontz sought to develop commercial land, most of which lies within a riparian habitat protection zone in Orange County, Florida. He applied for a dredge and fill permit with the St. Johns Water Management District, which agreed to grant the permit only on the condition that he place a conservation easement over his land, and perform mitig ...
Sackett v. Environmental Protection Agency
Property owners challenge EPA’s navigable waters overreach
One of the longest-running legal battles in the history of the Clean Water Act doesn't involve mega-polluters dumping toxic chemicals into America's major rivers and lakes. Rather, it involves a couple who wanted to build a home on less than an acre of land in a residential neighborhood. And now, that case could have ramifications for property owne ...