Articles

Today, the president is signing an executive order designed to bring more accountability to federal agencies. This executive order comes partly as a result of PLF research and cases battling bureaucratic overreach. PLF client Andy Johnson will be at the signing ceremony. Below is an article from 2016 that Andy wrote describing, in his own words, hi ...

Is permafrost—ground that remains continuously frozen for years on end—a "navigable water"? That's what government regulators who enforce the Clean Water Act want us to believe. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) believes that permanently frozen ground can be regulated as a "wetland." To most people, that probably sounds like a stretch. W ...

This week six friend of the court briefs were filed asking the U.S. Supreme Court to hear Joe Robertson's Clean Water Act case. Robertson, a 77-year-old Navy veteran in the small town of Basin, Montana, was unjustly convicted of Clean Water Act violations for digging firefighting ponds to protect his property. The prosecution turned on the defin ...

In light of Joe Robertson's appeal of his Clean Water Act conviction to the U.S. Supreme Court, readers might be wondering if any foot-wide ditches on their property are also "navigable," as the EPA imaginatively re-interprets that word. As it turns out, the answer depends on what state you live in. Here's what you need to know: In 22 state ...

Ninth Circuit holds that permafrost is a navigable water Today the Ninth Circuit in this opinion ruled against our clients in Tin Cup LLC v. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Tin Cup, a family owned pipe fabrication business in North Pole, Alaska, sought to expand and relocate its business. The Army Corps of Engineers claimed jurisdiction over the n ...

For many years, PLF has served as advocate for ordinary Americans facing byzantine regulation of their land by the EPA's water bureaucrats. In 2006 our client John Rapanos won his case at the Supreme Court, establishing that EPA's regulations defining "navigable waters" were illegal. But rather than follow Justice Scalia's plurality opinion narr ...

Pacific Legal Foundation is proud to have been asked by Joe Robertson, an elderly Navy veteran from Montana, to represent him in the Supreme Court of the United States, in his bid to overturn his conviction for violation of the Clean Water Act and damage to federal property. PLF will be asking the Supreme Court to review Joe's case after the Ninth ...

Happiness is a burger on a warm bun, a cold draft beer and freedom of speech Courts shouldn't look the other way when federal agencies seize power Congress never gave them Common sense prevails in Regulatory Flexibility Act case California agency's "sky-is-falling" argument unsupported by the facts On the road to the Supreme Court ...

Today Pacific Legal Foundation is asking the federal court to dismiss the U.S. Army's Clean Water Act case against our client Jack LaPant in United States v LaPant. The federal government is suing Jack for farming his land without permission from the Army Corps of Engineers. Now, we think the law is clear that the Clean Water Act does not require A ...