Author: Damien M. Schiff This week, the Center for Biological Diversity submitted a petition to the Department of the Interior to have the United States Fish & Wildlife Service develop a nationwide wolf recovery program that could lead to the introduction of "wolf populations in suitable habitat in the Pacific Northwest, ...
Author: Damien M. Schiff For some time, the Corps and the EPA have been drafting revised guidance governing how the agencies interpret the scope of their power under the Clean Water Act, following the Supreme Court's decision (and PLF's victory in) Rapanos v. United States. (The agencies' current guidance document w ...
In Sackett v. EPA, the United States Supreme Court held that compliance orders issued by EPA under the Clean Water Act are judicially reviewable under the Administrative Procedure Act. Earlier (and I may say rather quietly) this year, EPA’s Office of Civil Enforcement issued a memo to regional counsel and enforcement sections that interpret ...
Pacific Legal Foundation is very disappointed that the court declined to hear this very important case. For now, Americans in certain parts of the country will remain subject to second class citizenship, because the federal courts are closed to them when federal agencies terminate their permits and licenses, even when those actions destroy jobs ...
This Friday, May 6th, the Ninth Circuit will consider whether federal bureaucrats can escape judicial review of their illegal acts by pointing to their prior violations of the law. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service argues that PLF’s challenge to an illegal rule regarding the sea otter should not be heard because this isn’t the … ...
Last week, I argued PLF’s sea otter case before the Ninth Circuit. The issue before the Court is an essential one, that could have impacts far beyond this case: Can federal agencies escape judicial scrutiny for illegal actions if they have violated the law before? That seems silly, I know. You may be familiar with … ...
Yesterday, Townhall published my op-ed highlighting the importance of PLF’s big, unanimous Supreme Court win in our Hawkes case (and its predecessor, Sackett) and whether these cases foreshadow anything for one of our cases currently pending before the Court. As regular readers know, the Supreme Court ruled in PLF’s favor in Hawkes, ho ...
This morning, the Ninth Circuit held that federal agencies cannot escape judicial scrutiny for illegal actions simply because they have violated the law before. In PLF’s sea otter case, we represent fishermen in a challenge to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s recent decision to terminate congressionally mandated protections for them ...
This week, we filed our reply brief to our request to the United States Supreme Court to review the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision in Building Industry Association of the Bay Area v. United States Department of Commerce. We have asked the High Court to review the Ninth Circuit’s ruling that landowners and other affected part ...