Articles

Another PLF win in the Supreme Court This week, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously (8–0 with Justice Kavanaugh not participating) in favor of PLF client Edward Poitevent and his family in Weyerhaeuser v. U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. In a factual sense, the decision concerns whether the endangered dusky gopher frog's "critical habitat" c ...

PLF gets into a Santa suit to fight for free speech This week, PLF filed a lawsuit against the Washington Department of Ecology for kicking Santa out of their public lobby because they didn't like him spreading Christmas cheer. We're representing Freedom Foundation, a right-to-work think tank that sends canvassers out to state agencies every hol ...

Another lawsuit to challenge Seattle's war on landlords This week, we sued to challenge Seattle's Fair Chance Housing Ordinance on behalf of several landlords and the Rental Housing Association of Washington in Yim v. City of Seattle. The Fair Chance Housing Ordinance forbids landlords from asking for a criminal background check or denying someo ...

This week PLF appealed the district court's decision in BIA Bay Area v. City of Oakland to the Ninth Circuit. This case challenges Oakland's law compelling home builders to buy art commissions from (preferably local) artists if they want a building permit. This law violates the First Amendment, by compelling artistic speech, and the Fifth Amendm ...

A win for property owners throughout California What could be a better Christmas present than a property-rights win for every property owner in California? Over the holiday break, the California Court of Appeal issued an important decision protecting property owners from abuse by overzealous local governments. Oakland took more than $12,000 from ...

Intervention filed in Congressional Review Act case As has been widely reported elsewhere, Congress and the Administration have dusted off the Congressional Review Act and have set about rescinding a series of Obama-era regulations. You can read more about that on our CRA-themed website, RedTapeRollback.com. Much credit for this recent effort go ...

Affordable housing mandates on their way up Unsurprisingly, the California Supreme Court denied our petition for review in 616 Croft Avenue v. City of West Hollywood. This is the case where the City is demanding a half-million dollars in affordable housing subsidies from a couple who want to build more housing -- 11 condominiums where two homes ...

Last week I had the pleasure of speaking at the lunchtime meeting of the San Mateo Rotary Club. My remarks focused on PLF's property rights work, in particular cases addressing land-use exactions, rent control and related matters, and mobile home park regulation. These issues are particularly timely in San Mateo: tomorrow the city's voters will con ...

Almost a century ago, Justice Holmes famously warned that "We are in danger of forgetting that a strong public desire to improve the public condition is not enough to warrant achieving the desire by a shorter cut than the constitutional way of paying for the change." This warning could not be more timely or relevant. At issue in Common Sense Allia ...