Articles

Bad news on property rights from the California Supreme Court To celebrate the Magna Carta's 800th birthday, the California Supreme Court issued this unanimous and depressing opinion on the state of property rights in California.  California Building Industry Association v. San Jose involves the city's requirement that builders of 20 or more hom ...

California Supreme Court to rule on forced housing subsidies We're expecting a ruling on Monday in California Building Industry Association v. City of San Jose, the challenge to San Jose's affordable housing mandate.  While it admitted that it had not shown that the construction of new homes creates a need for more subsidized low-income housing, t ...

Big day for Liberty -- Property rights in California The California Supreme Court will hear arguments this Wednesday, April 8, in California Building Industry Association v. San Jose.  This is the case where the City is demanding that builders of 20 or more market-rate homes contribute three homes to the city's supply of "affordable" housing by se ...

Environment -- Victory for common sense in permitting reviews The California Supreme Court issued this opinion in Berkeley Hillside Preservation v. City of Berkeley Hillside Preservation v. City of Berkeley, a case dealing with environmental reviews under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA.) That statute, much like its federal analog t ...

Endangered Species Act -- Saving Lolita  PLF filed this comment letter on the attempt by some radical greens to exploit Lolita, or at least to evict this Killer Whale from Miami's Seaquarium , where she has been thriving for thirty years.  Her release into the wild could wellmean that her survival would be in doubt.  As our blog explains, because L ...

Obamacare -- Origination Clause Challenge We filed this reply brief in Sissel v. Sibelius, our challenge to Obamacare based on the failure of the revenue-raising measure to originate in the House of Representatives, as required by the Constitution's Origination Clause.  The case will move to oral argument sometime in 2014. Property Rights -- Emin ...

Free Enterprise Project -- the Yogurt - Yoga - Work connection We filed this amicus brief in Moradi v. Marsh, where we are asking the California Supreme Court to take up the enigmatic work-to-yogurt-to-yoga connection.  In this case an employee used her automobile for work related activities.  At the end of her work day, she changed into her yoga ...

Yesterday the California Supreme Court decided an important case in the field of exactions law, Sterling Park v. City of Palo Alto.  The issue in the case was in a sense rather mundane: what is the deadline for filing suit to challenge an affordable housing set aside as a condition of a development permit?  But the case required the court to determ ...

Property Rights -- "Inclusionary Zoning" We filed a petition for review in California Building Industry Association v. City of San Jose after a court of appeal upheld an extraordinary inclusionary zoning ordinance.  In this case developers were required to build three lower-income units for every twenty units of market rate housing, or pay an in-l ...