Articles

Good science fiction bends expectations in a way that encourages us to reexamine the way we think about things.  This morning, I finished Zero History, a noire thriller from science fiction great William Gibson (inventor of the term “cyberspace”).  While primarily focused on the tension between cutting edge and mainstream culture in a ...

This year marks the 20th anniversary of PLF’s Northwest Regional Center.  This is definitely a moment to celebrate, and we intend to do so.  But more than that, this is a time to reflect on two decades of PLF’s efforts in the Pacific Northwest. PLF opened its Northwest office in 1992.  Sir Mix-A-Lot was topping … ...

Earlier today, the California Supreme Court denied review of the case Vargas v. City of Salinas, which sought review of an outrageous, ruinous award of over $250,000 in attorneys’ fees against two individuals who brought a nonfrivolous public interest lawsuit against a city (they won a legal issue, but lost on the facts).  PLF filed … ...

PLF’s constitutional challenge to Washington state’s shoreline buffer scheme is pending before the U.S. Supreme Court.  The case, Kitsap Alliance of Property Owners v. Central Puget Sound Growth Management Hearings Board (KAPO) , began over a half decade ago, when Kitsap County, acting under the mandate of Washington’s Growth Man ...

In one of our earliest efforts in the Pacific Northwest, PLF participated in several cases challenging the constitutionality of a Seattle ordinance that severely restricted the use of low income rental properties. Throughout the 1980s, the City of Seattle, faced with a booming redevelopment market, adopted a series of ordinances that were intended ...

At the time PLF opened its office in the Pacific Northwest, Washington’s courts had adopted an extremely pro-regulation and anti-property rights stance toward regulatory takings law.  This was primarily due to the fact that the courts were operating under the notion that any regulation of private property that is designed to protect people f ...

Earlier today, the U.S. Supreme Court denied PLF’s petition for a writ of certiorari in the case, Kitsap Alliance of Property Owners v. Central Puget Sound Growth Management Hearings Board.  The petition asked the Court to consider whether a Kitsap County regulation requiring that shoreline property owners who seek building permits dedicate ...

This morning, the U.S. Supreme Court decided to take review of the important property rights case, Arkansas Game & Fish Commission v. United States.  This case asks whether government actions that result in intermittent physical invasion and occupation of another person’s property over a period of 8 years give rise to a claim for damage ...

Yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear the temporary takings case, Arkansas Game & Fish Commission v. United States. Our friends at the Cato Institute wrote this article highlighting the importance of the case to private landowners. … ...