Ro Cher Enterprises, Inc. v. EPA
EPA’s in-house tribunal undermines fairness and political accountability
Roger and Cheryl Janakus opened their Door & Window Superstore in 1983, selling doors and windows from their Chicago-area retail store and showroom. Under the careful leadership of the husband-wife team, the small business has earned a sterling record and many repeat customers.Nevertheless, the EPA is pursuing the Janakuses with claims that stretch ...
Grant Krueger, et al. v. Arizona Dept. of Agriculture
Arizona’s illegally hatched egg rule scrambles livelihoods and poaches rights
Even for Grant's small restaurant group, hiking eggs' cost by even one cent could force Grant either to cut costs elsewhere or raise prices just to pay the bills and keep the doors open. Despite the direct impact on their bottom lines, neither Grant nor any of his fellow restaurateurs had a seat at the rulemaking table. Nor did voters or lawmakers; ...
Sheetz v. County of El Dorado
Fighting extortionate permit fees at the Supreme Court
Once his land was ready and all George needed was a county building permit, he was stunned when told he could have his permit, but only if he paid a so-called traffic impact fee of more than $23,000. George weighed the immense cost against the hard work he put into his land and his yearning for a retirement home, and he paid the fee under protest. ...
Do No Harm v. William Lee
Tennessee’s race quotas for government boards deny equality and opportunity
Represented by PLF at no charge, Do No Harm is fighting back. Its federal lawsuit challenges the Tennessee podiatry board's race-based membership quota as violating the Constitution's equal protection guarantee. Its victory would ensure that all candidates can compete equally for any city advisory board, regardless of race. ...
Frank Black and Southeast Investments N.C., Inc. v. FINRA
Defending livelihood and due process from illegitimate in-house prosecution
Represented in federal court at no charge by Pacific Legal Foundation, Frank is challenging the illegal regulatory scheme that outsources congressional lawmaking, judicial adjudication, and executive enforcement powers to a quasi-governmental organization to restore his due process rights, his livelihood, and the proper balance of power in governme ...
Jake’s Fireworks, Inc. v. Consumer Product Safety Commission
Family fireworks business sparks legal battle to open federal courts for regulatory challenges
Agencies' bullying people into action through informal threats are unfortunately all-too-common due process failures within government agencies. They're also unconstitutional. A unanimous Supreme Court said in PLF's wins in Sackett I and again in Hawkes that government agencies can't issue determinations that spell out punishment and then claim suc ...
Tilt Vision Studios, LLC, et al. v. The City of Waller, Texas
Artists fight government whitewash of free expression and livelihoods
Under the First Amendment, however, the government cannot restrict expression that it doesn't like. Yet the City of Waller has done just that, enshrining into law its own aesthetic preferences in an effort to kill a thriving art mural business. And similar regulations are popping up in other cities to police "acceptable" types of public expres ...
Miall, et al. v. Asheville
Race preferences for government committees deny equality and opportunity
No government commission or committee should use an individual's race or ethnicity to determine who gets the opportunity to serve their public. Treating people according to immutable characteristics like race violates the very notion of equality before the law. People should be treated as individuals, not as members of a group they did not cho ...
Landscape Consultants of Texas, et al. v. City of Houston, et al.
Racial set-asides in Houston contracting deny equal treatment and opportunity
Jerry and Theresa Thompson have called Houston, Texas, home for more than 30 years. They love the area, having raised their family and built Landscape Consultants of Texas and Metropolitan Landscape Management, Inc., two thriving companies whose landscapers maintain parks, playgrounds, and other government-owned properties. Now, however, as the sem ...