Pacific Legal Foundation is a repeat player at the Supreme Court of the United States. Our attorneys have won cases involving property rights, free speech, and Clean Water and Endangered Species Acts, cases that exemplify threats to liberty and property by the regulatory state. In the 2020-21 term, PLF filed seven petitions for certiorari and 18 amicus briefs.
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 ...
Mr. Pakdel is a small business owner in Ohio. In 2009 he bought what’s known as a “tenancy in common” (TIC) apartment in San Francisco and leased it to a residential tenant. As part of the purchase, Pakdel signed an agreement with the other owners to convert the building’s six units into condominiums. But the City of San Fra ...
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 p ...
Each year around the holidays, Washington-based Freedom Foundation sends staff members to the lobbies of state agency buildings. These staffers—dressed as Santa—hand out leaflets that explain state employees’ right to opt out of union dues. Allowed by most agencies, the Washington Department of Ecology in 2017 instead prohibited the leafl ...
In 2016, the Lents received the California Coastal Commission’s first ever fine—$4.185 million—for blocking public access to the beach. The home sits 20 feet above the beach and, without stairs or a ramp, the public cannot safely get to the beach. The property originally included an outdoor stairway and a gate to block the large drop—bo ...
All Michael and Cathy Zito wanted to do was rebuild their vacation cottage in Nags Head, North Carolina after fire destroyed it in 2016. But state and local governments denied building permits because the property is now within a no-build zone. The Zitos were left with the only vacant lot in a line of beach homes and can do little more than pitch a ...
In the American Bar Association's Preview magazine, Pacific Legal Foundation senior legal fellow Elizabeth Slattery authored a piece on the recently concluded Supreme Court term. In the article, she focuses on two major themes: First, the Court issued a multitude of rulings which were both unanimous and "narrow"; second, that the so-called conserva ...
Yesterday the U.S. Supreme Court issued a decision in Alabama Association of Realtors v. Department of Health and Human Services, affirming what Pacific Legal Foundation has argued on behalf of landowners for nearly a year—that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lacked the constitutional authority to enforce its nationwide eviction mo ...
In 1922, the Supreme Court relied on the doctrine of regulatory takings to rule that an excessive coal mining regulation violated the constitutional rights of the coal owner. This was a big win for property rights and should have had long-lasting implications. But, unfortunately, the idea that a regulatory taking violated the Constitution went into ...
On Monday, the United States Supreme Court announced that courts must hear our case Pakdel v. City and County of San Francisco, which challenges a San Francisco ordinance that forces land owners to provide lifetime leases to tenants. In the Court's opinion, they removed barriers to bringing property rights cases in federal court. In 2009, Peyma ...
Today, the Supreme Court of the United States issued a victory for property owners with their decision in Cedar Point Nursery v. Hassid. The Supreme Court affirmed that the government cannot force people to allow third parties to trespass on their property. In 2015, union activists stormed Cedar Point Nursery to harass the farm workers ...
The Washington Department of Ecology allows public employee union representatives to communicate with workers in the building’s public lobby but enacted a new policy that bans the Freedom Foundation…
The free, non-harmful, and productive use of private property is a cornerstone of the American Dream. And proper regulation, to prevent harmful uses of property, is consistent with this principle. But…
The Supreme Court convenes today for the start of its October 2021 term, in person for the first time since March 2020, when the pandemic drove the justices to — literally — phone it in. This year…
Nearly 15 years ago, the efforts of Chantell and Mike Sackett to build their family home in a residential neighborhood of Priest Lake, Idaho, were put on indefinite hold. That is because the Environme…
To anyone considering donating to a nonprofit organization (and I know a few good ones!), I have some great news: The U.S. Supreme Court has upheld your constitutional right to privacy of association….
According to recent surveys, free speech is losing favor among college students. While supporting free expression in general terms, students prefer to carve out exceptions to censor speech that offend…
PLF attorneys are available for speaking engagements and media interviews on cases at the Supreme Court.
To book a speaker, email [email protected]. To arrange a media interview or to receive a comment on a Supreme Court case, email [email protected].
PLF partners with private counsel on important public interest litigation at the appellate level. If you have such a case and your clients cannot afford continuing litigation, ask us about partnering to take a case to the Supreme Court.
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