Articles

Government illegally designates green sturgeon critical habitat

March 10, 2011 | By PACIFIC LEGAL FOUNDATION

Author:Ted Hadzi-Antich Today PLF filed a lawsuit against the federal government for its illegal designation of critical habitat for the distinct southern population of the green sturgeon, a marine species located throughout the West Coast of the United States.  Over 11,000 square miles of critical habitat were designated, from the northe ...

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President's weekly report — March 1, 2013

March 01, 2013 | By ROB RIVETT

Property Rights — Water, Fish and Takings The Federal Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the dismissal on ripeness grounds of Casitas Municipal Water District v. United States.  This was the case where the district alleged that a fish ladder and water diversion required to protect endangered fish took its water rights (see picture to right ...

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Is the environment made for humans or vice versa?

May 16, 2013 | By PACIFIC LEGAL FOUNDATION

Today PLF filed a motion for summary judgment in federal district court to reverse the government’s decision to prohibit motorized travel on hundreds of miles of roads and trails in Tahoe National Forest. Historically, these routes were available to individuals who wanted to experience the natural pleasures afforded by the forest. In a misgui ...

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Drakes Bay Oyster Company fights on

October 18, 2013 | By TONY FRANCOIS

Drakes Bay Oyster Company today filed a Petition for Rehearing en banc in the Ninth Circuit, continuing the shellfish farm’s fight for an injunction that will allow it to remain in business while it litigates over the Secretary of the Interior’s illegal refusal to renew its operating permit. PLF will be filing an amicus brief … ...

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Ninth circuit should re-examine flawed ESA precedent in re-hearing drakes bay appeal

October 25, 2013 | By TONY FRANCOIS

This morning PLF, joined by the California Cattlemen’s Association and the Building Industry Association of the Bay Area, filed an amicus brief in support of Drakes Bay Oyster Company’s petition for rehearing en banc of the Court’s September decision in their case. That opinion upheld the trial court’s denial of an injunctio ...

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Ninth circuit denies rehearing in oyster farm case

January 14, 2014 | By TONY FRANCOIS

This morning the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals denied Drakes Bay Oyster Company’s petition for rehearing, and issued an amended opinion in the case which once again upholds the trial court’s decision to deny the oyster farm an injunction which would prevent the closure of the farm. The oyster farm will have to consider its … ...

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Drakes Bay Oyster Company to seek relief at United States Supreme Court

January 15, 2014 | By TONY FRANCOIS

Late yesterday, after the Ninth Circuit denied its petition for rehearing, Drakes Bay Oyster Company announced in a statement that it will seek relief in the United States Supreme Court.  The oyster farm is fighting for survival after the Department of the Interior refused to renew a permit that the farm needs to remain in … ...

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Don't keep us out of the environment

February 11, 2014 | By PACIFIC LEGAL FOUNDATION

The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) was intended to protect the human environment, not to keep humans out of the environment.  Yet that is exactly how the United States Forest Service is using NEPA – to keep people away from forests.  The Service is closing forest access to those among us who are unable to hike countless  ...

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Americans to the U.S. Forest Service : don't shut us out of our national forests

March 18, 2015 | By PACIFIC LEGAL FOUNDATION

In a democracy, there are few things more troublesome to the body politic (or to just plain folks) than bureaucrats who ingest large doses of self-importance while trying to expand their limited powers.  If it weren’t so dangerous, it’d be pitiful. … ...