Articles

Author:  Paul Beard II On Friday, PLF attorneys filed a lawsuit against the California Coastal Commission—the State's worst abuser of property rights and of landowners who live and work in the State's coastal zone.  The case centers on the Commission's attempt to take a substantial public access easement from a ...

Author:  Paul J. Beard II Earlier this month, we filed a lawsuit against the California Coastal Commission for attempting to extort a mile-long public-access easement of shoreline property from a family with land in San Luis Obispo, California, that wants to make simple repairs to a home.  We argue that the easement conditon& ...

Author:  Paul J. Beard II This morning, Fox News did a segment on our most recent lawsuit against the California Coastal Commission: SDS Family Trust v. California Coastal Commission. You won't want to miss this excellent interview of one of our clients, Denise McLaughlan, explaining the Commission's extortionate demand for a mi ...

Author: Brian T. Hodges Earlier today, Washington’s Supreme Court denied PLF’s petition raising a facial challenge to the constitutionality of big, mandatory buffers in the case, Kitsap Alliance for Property Owners v. Central Puget Sound Growth Management Hearings Board.  This case arises from Kitsap County’s adoption of a c ...

Author: Brian T. Hodges Today, PLF filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court urging it to review the unconstitutional exactions case, West Linn Corporate Park, L.L.C. v. City of West Linn.  The facts of the case are as follows.  The City of West Linn, Oregon, required West Linn Corporate Park to finance and … ...

Author: Paul J. Beard II It appears that one family's fight for the right to build a home without extortionate permit exactions imposed by the infamous California Coastal Commission may finally be coming to close. … ...

It’s been another amazing week here at PLF.  Here are a few of the highlights. Property Rights — Back to the United States Supreme Court! The Supreme Court granted certiorari today in Koontz v. St. John’s River Management District.  This is the case where the district is demanding a Florida landowner (actually now his heirs  ...

Today’s Washington Times carries this article by me and Ilya Shapiro about the Koontz case. Excerpt: The implications of this case go beyond issues of property rights. When officials start treating permits as a kind of benefit for which people can be forced to pay with resources or concessions that have no connection to their … ...

In only four days the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in PLF’s property rights case, Koontz.  In recent posts, we’ve argued that Supreme Court precedents set out in Nollan and Dolan should apply to Koontz.  Today and Monday we’ll take a closer look at the importance of those two cases. This post focuses … ...