Articles

This afternoon, the Natural Resources Committee of the California Assembly will consider AB 1129 (Stone), the Coastal Commission’s most recent effort to expand its powers at the expense of coastal landowners. The bill would overturn a longstanding understanding of the Coastal Act’s regulation of sea walls and other protective devices. C ...

The physical invasion of the raisin snatchers — a property rights victory at the Supreme Court  In a week marked by several major Supreme Court decisions that were quite disappointing to advocates of limited government and the rule of law, there was one very bright spot: this decision in Horne v. United States Department of Agriculture. T ...

On November 12, we reported that the California Coastal Commission had asked the Court of Appeal to reconsider (for a third time!) its decision and rule in the Commission’s favor.  Last week, we filed an answer to the Commission’s petition for rehearing, explaining why the Court need not rehear the appeal.  We are pleased to … ...

Last month, we reported on PLF’s big win against the California Coastal Commission, when the California Court of Appeal unanimously ruled that three sisters could rehabilitate their old ranch house without having to dedicate a mile-long public-access easement across the shoreline of their property.  The court held that the easement exacti ...

Today, the California Court of Appeal issued a published decision ruling in favor of PLF client, SDS Family Trust, in its years-long battle against the California Coastal Commission. The case involves the constitutionality of a public-access easement that the Commission demanded as a condition of the family’s modest restoration of its home ...

Yesterday, a San Mateo Superior Court judge issued a stunning tentative ruling in one of the two Martins Beach lawsuits pending against coastal landowner Vinod Khosla. The judge concluded that the decision to disallow the public to trespass onto private property–after allowing the public to do so for a fee–constitutes “de ...

On Sunday, the Sacramento Bee published my opinion editorial on the Martins Beach controversy, including legislative efforts to cow one landowner into giving up his property rights. PLF attorneys are following the dispute closely, and they will support the property owner as a friend-of-the-court in an appeal from a San Mateo Superior Court ruling t ...

One of California’s most controversial land-use disputes  is over Martins Beach, in Half Moon Bay. The fight is over public access to the popular beach–and whether one man’s private property rights can survive a fierce backlash from well-funded and powerful interests groups.  I wrote about the facts of the case here. The contr ...

On Monday, July 14, at 9:00 a.m., I will be in the California Court of Appeal (San Diego) arguing an appeal brought by the California Coastal Commission in Lynch v. California Coastal Commission.  At stake is two Encinitas families’ right to repair a private beach staircase destroyed by storms, and to install (and keep) a state-of-the-art ...