Articles

Things fall apart–Beltway edition

December 31, 2012 | By TIMOTHY SANDEFUR

Yeats’ eerie, prophetic poem “The Second Coming” is one of the great masterpieces of twentieth century literature. In it, he warns of the imminent collapse of civilization, at a time when Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed ...

Articles

Supreme Court justices issue call to rein in judicial deference to executive agencies

March 10, 2015 | By TONY FRANCOIS

Yesterday the United States Supreme Court issued its decision in Perez v. Mortgage Bankers Association, which holds that an executive agency is not required to provide public notice or consider comments when it changes a formal interpretation of its own regulations. The unanimous decision is rather uneventful, despite the fact that it limits publi ...

Articles

Impatience is no excuse to dispense with the Constitution’s checks and balances

April 26, 2016 | By TODD GAZIANO

Last week, the Supreme Court heard 90 minutes of oral argument from four advocates (two on each side) in United States v. Texas, the case brought by 26 states challenging the legality of the administration’s executive actions regarding about four million aliens in the country illegally, including whether they are entitled to certain benefits ...

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Bureaucratic overreach and the separation of powers

February 22, 2017 | By ETHAN BLEVINS

Can federal agencies make up whatever policies they like unless Congress tells them not to? PLF answered an emphatic “no” in an amicus brief filed today to support a petition to the Supreme Court. In National Restaurant Assocation v. Department of Labor, courts allowed the Department to expand its power beyond limits set by Congress. & ...

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One unelected bureaucrat should not have unilateral authority over the use of 640 million acres of public land

April 11, 2018 | By JEFF MCCOY

Today, PLF filed a brief on behalf of Gregory Yount, a self-employed prospector and miner, that asks the Supreme Court to hear two cases involving the use of federal public land. At issue is one section of the Federal Land Policy and Management Act (FLPMA), a 1976 law that (like its name implies) governs management … ...