Articles

Vero Beach High School, a public high school on the east coast of Florida, has a First Amendment problem. The school failed to respect it. And now a student—J.P. Krause, a top student, rising senior, our client, and the young man who should serve as VBHS senior class president in the coming school year—understands better why the … ...

This morning, we filed a petition for rehearing en banc in People for the Ethical Treatment of Property Owners v. U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service—our challenge to the federal government’s constitutional authority to regulate take of the Utah prairie dog. Three years ago, the District Court for the District of Utah ruled the regulation unc ...

This morning, the Supreme Court asked the United States’ Solicitor General to weigh in on Rinehart v. California, PLF’s challenge to California’s suction dredge mining ban. The case raises significant questions about federalism, preemption, and state regulation of federal lands. … ...

Today, PLF filed an amicus brief in the Second Circuit supporting a television manufacturer’s challenge to a Connecticut law that shifts the cost of a local recycling program onto consumers in other states. The law is plainly unconstitutional under the Dormant Commerce Clause, which forbids states from regulating or taxing activity beyond th ...

This week, Pacific Legal Foundation attorneys filed a Petition for Certiorari asking the United States Supreme Court to review the case of Nies v. Town of Emerald Isle, discussed more here.  The Petition presents the important question of “whether the Takings Clause permits a state to statutorily redefine an entire coastline of privately ow ...

This morning, President Trump issued an executive order requiring the Department of Interior to review 21 years of national monument designations. That review is long overdue. For decades, Presidents have treated the Antiquities Act as a blank check to shut down productive activity over vast areas, in the belief that doing so will establish their ...

This morning, Minerva Dairy and its President, Adam Mueller, challenged a Wisconsin law that bans butter from being sold within Wisconsin if it hasn’t first been “graded.” Wisconsin’s law prevents butter makers outside of Wisconsin from selling their products in that state unless they first go through the arduous and cost pr ...

Last Thursday night, Damien Schiff and I had the opportunity to speak before 150 or so gathered residents of Acton, Agua Dulce, and a few other nearby unincorporated communities of North Los Angeles County. We were invited to speak about the importance of property rights historically and today, the harm to property caused by “regulatory R ...

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. & ...