Articles

Author: Brian T. Hodges Imagine, if you will, a criminal defendant on trial for robbery.  In his defense, the mugger argues that when he pointed a pistol at Joe citizen’s head and demanded “your money or your life, ” he wasn’t stealing.  No, stealing is such an ugly word.  The mugger was simply allowing Joe ...

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. … ...

Environment — Endangered Caribou The United States Fish & Wildlife Service announced a drastic (and well-justified) reduction in critical habitat for the Selkirk Caribou from 375,000 to approximately 30,000 acres, based largely on the fact that the caribou do not live in lower elevations in Idaho as originally assumed. We still, however, ...

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 our recent posts about the Koontz case and the ways government forces property owners to hand over things in exchange for building permits, we’ve focused primarily on government demands for money or property. But government sometimes demands other rights. In fact, in one California community, officials tell property owners that if they wan ...

You can read it here. … ...

I’ll be in studio with Armstrong & Getty this Friday morning at 8 am Pacific to discuss the Koontz case argued this week. You can listen online here. Update: I accidentally posted this a day too early. … ...

On Armstrong & Getty this morning we talked about property rights, Progressivism, and whether we’re all doomed, doomed!! You can listen to the recording here. … ...

Florida Voices published a great op-ed by NFIB’s Karen Harned, discussing PLF’s pending U.S. Supreme Court case, Koontz v. St. Johns River Water Management District. The op-ed discusses how the case relates to the small business community and to essential constitutional rights. Ms. Harned writes: It is true that for most Americans, the ...