Articles

A North Dakota businessman recently announced plans to develop a 352-foot tower in Fargo, North Dakota. Fargo is a small city with a population of 105,000. The metropolitan population of Fargo is only 3% that of Washington, D.C. However, even without this latest development, Fargo has more 200 ft. commercial buildings than our nation’s capita ...

In July of this year, PLF petitioned the California Supreme Court to review a lower court opinion allowing the City of San Jose to essentially takeover 15% of all new homes as units for the city’s affordable housing program.  In September, the Court granted review, and yesterday PLF filed the opening brief on behalf of … ...

It appears to be PLF week at the San Diego Union Tribune.  Today the paper published this OpEd by PLF attorneys Harold Johnson and yours truly.  The piece discusses PLF’s pending challenge to San Jose’s affordable housing exactions in the California Supreme Court on behalf of the California Building Industry Association. The piece ope ...

Endangered Species Act — Saving Lolita  PLF filed this comment letter on the attempt by some radical greens to exploit Lolita, or at least to evict this Killer Whale from Miami’s Seaquarium , where she has been thriving for thirty years.  Her release into the wild could wellmean that her survival would be in doubt.  As our blog & ...

PLF recently filed its opening brief and reply brief in the California Supreme Court on behalf of the California Building Industry Association, which is challenging the constitutionality of the City of San Jose’s regime of affordable housing exactions. An affordable housing exaction is a demand that a local government imposes on home builder ...

I will be joining KQED host Michael Krasny on his program tomorrow morning during the 9:00 AM hour, to discuss this morning’s oral arguments before the California Supreme Court in California Building Industry Association v. City of San Jose. UPDATE: Audio from this morning’s appearance is available here. … ...

Wetlands — Major victory in the 8th Circuit The 8th Circuit handed us this major victory today in Hawkes v. United States.  The decision is a wonder to read because the court “got it.”  It understood that requiring a landowner to seek a wetlands permit when the landowner doesn’t think there are any jurisdictional wetlands ...

Bad news on property rights from the California Supreme Court To celebrate the Magna Carta’s 800th birthday, the California Supreme Court issued this unanimous and depressing opinion on the state of property rights in California.  California Building Industry Association v. San Jose involves the city’s requirement that builders of 20 o ...

Hawkes: 16 – 0 We received sixteen briefs in support of our client, the Hawkes Company, and none in support of the government in Corps of Engineers v. Hawkes. From 29 states to farmers and think tanks, there is widespread support for our clients. The amicus briefs agree with us that federal law gives landowners … ...