We are a nation of creators, inventors, builders, and entrepreneurs. The only way to recover from this crisis is to unleash our productive energy.
Download PLF's Roadmap to Recovery
The current crisis has spared nobody from hardship. Whether it’s the thousands suffering from the virus or the millions who have lost their jobs, the costs of this pandemic and our response will be staggering.
Government has a role to play in protecting the public’s health, but that role is limited and alone, it cannot restart the economy. Government can impose quarantines and order businesses to shut down, but it cannot produce the critical supplies and know-how needed for recovery.
The only way we will emerge from this crisis is by unleashing Americans’ productive energy. To do that, government needs to get out of the way—right now, to save lives, and when the immediate threat is over, to get people back to work.
PLF takes the fight to legislatures, courts of law, and the court of public opinion to free Americans to rebuild from this crisis.
Brewster Ambulance Service is a family-owned business that provides transportation to sick and disabled people in Collier County, Florida. Although they are based in Naples, they are willing and able to provide transportation to coronavirus patients in other counties, but are prohibited by the state’s Certificate of Need laws. PLF has asked Gov Ron DeSantis to suspend Florida’s CON law and the similar laws in 13 other states. Our op-ed in The Wall Street Journal highlights two other absurd stories of restricting the supply of medical services during a pandemic. Read more
Health care workers, scientists, and businesses must be free to make decisions and adapt quickly to changes in the developing medical landscape.
Millions of Americans must find new work. Old regulations must not create needless barriers to new opportunities.
In the coming months, businesses will close and property must be adapted to new uses. And Americans will need lower-cost housing.
Much of the high cost of housing is due to government land use regulations, which limit how owners can use their property to meet people’s needs. State and local government should simplify or eliminate land use regulation where there is no legitimate concern for public health, safety, or nuisance. Read more
Our vast, sprawling regulatory state is simply not capable of responding quickly and effectively to anything, much less to a pandemic. By its nature, the regulatory state takes decisions away from individuals, professionals, and businesses and transfers them to bureaucrats. As a result, we increasingly live in a society in which some of the most important decisions in our lives are made by permission.
This pandemic has already prompted calls for more government control of our lives. But in order to increase the freedom, control, and responsibility that individuals exercise in their own lives, we need less government control. Read more
Questions about the quarantines and shutdowns? Read our FAQ about the government’s emergency orders and what PLF recommends doing about them.
With Americans under an unprecedented web of orders to stay inside – with “non-essential” businesses, lives, and livelihoods on hold while staggering costs mount – an increasing number are asking: are the shutdown orders constitutional? Don’t state or federal constitutions guarantee my right to travel, to earn a living, or to attend church, even if the government demands otherwise?
There's no doubt that renters and homeowners alike have been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic and related economic shutdown. The Wall Street Journal reports that nearly one-third of renters were late on their rent this month, while a survey from rental listing website ApartmentList found that a full quarter of households couldn't pay all of their housing costs.
Last week, the federal government launched the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), a new loan program intended to help small businesses that have partially or fully shut down because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The question on many minds during our time of quarantine: How far can state government officials go in curtailing constitutional rights like the freedom of association, free exercise of religion, and right to travel among and between the states, in service to public safety by reducing the spread of the coronations?
The COVID-19 pandemic has delivered a massive hit to the U.S. economy, and California is no exception. The March jobs report showed the Golden State is shedding jobs at a furious rate. Yet a California law remains on the books that further frustrates the ability of freelancers to find work.
Gov. Gavin Newsom announced that the continued spread of COVID-19 in California could necessitate the imposition of martial law. “We have the ability to do martial law ...
This week, Pacific Legal Foundation Senior Attorney, Mark Miller, joined Host Tim Farley on The Morning Briefing on the P.O.T.U.S. channel on Sirius XM radio. During the show Mark discussed how the COVID-19 pandemic could affect the cases currently before the Court and the constitutional issues that the Court is deliberating.
In most states, ‘certificate-of-need’ laws stand in the way of new medical facilities and services. One of the most essential responses to a pandemic is ensuring medical providers can adapt quickly to meet new demands. Yet recently an all-female EMT brigade in New York, a family-run ambulance business in Ohio and a fifth-generation ambulance company in Florida were all stopped from providing vital medical transportation. Why? Because they couldn’t prove to the government’s satisfaction that their services were “needed.”
As the COVID-19 lockdowns continues to grind on in most states, President Trump has signaled an intense desire for state governors to reopen their respective states. This pressure has ranged from the subtle to the overt. In one particularly alarming development, the president even went so far as to declare that the decision to lift the current stay at home orders is his to make, not state governors.
State and local governments have closed businesses across the country in response to COVID-19, putting millions of Americans out of work. Right now, those Americans’ biggest concerns are keeping a roof over their heads and feeding their families.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court recently struck down part of Governor Tony Ever's stay-at-home order because the governor and state Department of Health Services enacted the order without any oversight from the legislature which violated the state constitution. This decision has predictably been viewed through a partisan lens—a conservative Supreme C ...
Today Pacific Legal Foundation is putting Governor Gavin Newsom and Napa County officials on notice that their reopening plans are arbitrarily depriving individuals of their ability to responsibly resume business, which presents serious constitutional concerns. We've written this letter in support of Quent and Linda Cordair, owners of Quent Cordair ...
Too often, government makes bad situations worse. States have broad powers to protect the health and safety of their citizens—especially during emergencies like the COVID-19 outbreak, but many overreaching and arbitrary government policies having little to do with public safety have made the situation more painful and destructive than necessary. ...
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused incredible uncertainty in so many aspects of people's lives. Unfortunately, but predictably, much of that uncertainty and turmoil has been caused by government policies and actions. Almost as soon as state and federal responses to COVID-19 began, PLF started fielding calls about our thoughts on the emergency orders ...
In the 19th century, epidemics and crowded tenement housing went hand in hand. Cholera, smallpox, and even the bubonic plague swept through America's slum housing in numbers that make the COVID-19 epidemic seem like a case of the sniffles. Unfortunately, today's housing policies in many urban areas make low-income and minority city residents most a ...
PLF is committed to protecting the individual rights of Americans during the COVID-19 crisis. Our approach is forward looking, focusing on empowering Americans and helping them recover from the crisis. We believe that only the entrepreneurial actions of individuals and businesses will get the nation moving in the right direction. Read our statement ...
The COVID-19 pandemic is causing shocking shortages of critical medical supplies such as N95 masks and ventilators. In the face of these alarming headlines, many have called on the president to invoke the Defense Production Act (DPA) to order their production. President Trump himself has swung wildly from refusing to use the DPA to rhetorically ...
Today, in support of Brewster Ambulance Service, PLF called on Florida Governor Ron DeSantis to suspend the state's Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity (COPCN) requirement for ambulances. That law puts the interests of incumbent providers above Florida entrepreneurs and consumers and blocks health care providers from providing vital ser ...
Temporary hospitals are popping up all over New York in anticipation of a growing number of coronavirus patients and an undersupply of hospital beds. The U.S. has just 2.8 hospital beds per 1,000 Americans⸺even fewer than Italy (3.2) and drastically lower than South Korea (12.3). But those so-called "field" hospitals, hidden beneath makeshift ten ...
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused incredible turmoil and pain for millions of people around the world. This uncertainty has inspired many to call for government to step in and fight the spread of COVID-19 and ensure that hospitals and critical industries have the resources and supplies they need. While government policies have a role in ...
Help us ensure that Americans have the freedom to create, help, work, and rebuild our nation out of this crisis. Your support helps us bring additional, critical legal challenges and sound legislative solutions to unleash our productive energies.
