LAUSD eliminates race-based teacher policy
Author: Joshua Thompson There has been a lot of great coverage of PLF's excellent settlement with the Los Angeles Unified School District, whereby LAUSD agreed to eliminate its race-conscious Teacher Integration Transfer Program. Here's a snippet from the Los Angeles Daily News: Wednesday's announcement by the Pacific ...
How the commerce clause was twisted to give Congress power over everything
Author: Timothy Sandefur Our friends at Reason.tv have prepared an outstanding video about the legal issues surrounding the commerce clause, and how courts have expanded Congress' powers under that provision. The best part is when Prof. Chemerinsky concedes that Congress could force people to buy cars if it wanted to. … ...
Should Congress strengthen the Clean Water Act? No: Plan is sleight of hand
Author: Reed Hopper Read my op-ed in the Duluth News Tribune. Here is an excerpt: "In a recent letter to colleagues, U.S. Rep. Jim Oberstar claimed his new bill — “America’s Commitment to Clean Water Act” (H.R.5088) — would “restore, but not expand, the geographic scope of the Clean Water Act” that existed bef ...
PLF and Ward Connerly announce that LAUSD ends race-based teacher placement
Los Angeles, CA; August 25, 2010: In a legal settlement responding to a Proposition 209 lawsuit by Pacific Legal Foundation attorneys, the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) has rescinded its policy of race-based discrimination in teacher assignment. Therefore, PLF announced today that it has dismissed the lawsuit as of this week. “U ...
The salmon wars, continued
Author: Damien M. Schiff The Ninth Circuit this week issued another decision in the longrunning dispute over whether and how to protect populations of salmon and related fish under the Endangered Species Act. In Modesto Irrigation District v. Gutierrez, the plaintiffs challenged the National Marine Fisheries Service's decision not ...
Update: Ninth Circuit denies rehearing in Leu v. IBC
Author: Daniel Himebaugh The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit will not rehear the appeal in Leu v. International Boundary Commission. You may recall that this is the case in which former International Boundary Commissioner Dennis Schornack claimed that President Bush lacked the power to terminate his appointment as a commissioner. ...
City claims that environmental regulations should trump constitutionally protected property rights
Author: Brian T. Hodges Kipp and Marilyn Dunlap bought a vacant residential lot in Nooksack, Washington with the dream of building their home there. But the city had other ideas. You see, Nooksack slough runs through the middle of the Dunlaps’ lot, and the city declared that land adjacent to streams constitutes an environmentall ...
The Right to Earn A Living in Seattle, Sept. 2
Author: Timothy Sandefur I’ll be speaking about my new book, The Right to Earn A Living, to the Puget Sound Federalist Society on September 2 at 12:15 p.m., at the Nakamura Courthouse, 1010 Fifth Avenue, in the Judge’s Conference Room on the 6th floor. The public is welcome, lunch is provided, and there’s only a … ...
Washington's supreme court orders a landowner to sell his property to neighbors
Author: Brian T. Hodges They say that bad facts make bad law. Well, here’s a doozy. Noel Proctor and Ford and Christina Huntington purchased neighboring parcels in Southern Washington. The Huntingtons unwittingly built their home approximately 400 feet onto Proctor’s land. Proctor discovered the encroachment ...
Unlicensed barbers and consumer protection
Author: Timothy Sandefur Jonathan Adler makes some very good points about the unfairness of many occupational licensing laws. These kinds of abuses are precisely why PLF’s Economic Liberty Project exists. Some licensing laws aren’t even just abused for self-interested (“rent-seeking”) purposes, but are explicitly designed to ...