Articles

Seattle trashed!  We had  this resounding trial court victory in Bonesteel v. City of Seattle, our challenge to Seattle’s trash-snooping law. In a city where political correctness trumps individual rights, the city passed an ordinance that not only requires Seattlelites to compost their food waste, but required its trash collectors to inspe ...

PLF clients Ray Burns and Teresa Avila-Burns just wanted to build a small house on their vacant lot in South Lake Tahoe so that their elderly mothers could enjoy the high quality of life in the Lake Tahoe area. But the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA) said the parcel the Burns had purchased was entirely … ...

Supreme Court grants cert in PLF wetlands jurisdiction case! The Supreme Court just granted the government’s motion for writ of certiorari in Army Corps of Engineers v. Hawkes.  This case will answer the question of whether a landowner is entitled to judicial review of a wetlands jurisdictional determination by the Corps of Engineers. This ...

The Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA) has regulated land use in the Lake Tahoe Basin since 1969. It is a bi-state compact agency formed through an agreement between California and Nevada for the purpose of protecting Lake Tahoe and its surroundings. Using its significant regulatory power, TRPA has long been a thorn in the side … ...

Yes, according to a new lawsuit filed in federal court in Sacramento against the Lake Tahoe Visitors Authority and a fireworks operator.  The lawsuit contends that the Lake Tahoe fireworks shows cause considerable environmental harm to Lake Tahoe, through discharges of trash, chemical residues, and other pollutants from the boats from which the fi ...