Articles

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 ...

Our friends at Florida’s James Madison Institute have published my article, “Is The PPACA’s Tax Constitutional?” in the latest issue of their Journal. You can read it online here (page 40). In it, I talk about our lawsuit on behalf of Matt Sissel, challenging the Individual Mandate provision of Obamacare that the Supreme Co ...

After the Supreme Court’s decision in NFIB v. Sebelius came out, David Franklin hailed Chief Justice Roberts’ decision in Slate Magazine.  The decision shocked many who thought Roberts would join the conservatives in striking down Obamacare, but Franklin praised Roberts for saving Court’s credibility, noting that “a 5-4 dec ...

In 2007, Minnesota passed a law to regulate emissions from power plants. But, because the increased costs of complying with this law would lead to more of the electricity consumed in the state to be generated elsewhere, Minnesota asserted the authority to regulate beyond its own borders. This week, PLF and the NFIB Small Business … ...

We’ve filed a brief in the Supreme Court, on behalf of PLF, the Cato Institute, National Federation of Independent Business Small Business Legal Center, and Reason Foundation, asking it to take up a case challenging state regulations of commerce occurring wholly beyond their borders. In this case, Colorado has adopted a law that regulates how ...

Today, PLF submitted a petition with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, challenging a regulation that illegally extends the Endangered Species Act’s burdensome take prohibition to all threatened species. The petition argues that federal bureaucrats have no authority to reverse Congress’ judgment that the stringent take prohibition sh ...

This morning, a divided panel of the Eighth Circuit held that a Minnesota law regulating greenhouse gas emissions beyond the state’s borders is invalid. This is a welcome result. PLF, joined by NFIB, filed an amicus brief in the case, supporting the challenge, arguing that the Constitution’s Dormant Commerce Clause forbids extraterritor ...

Over on the Huffington Post, Noah Greenwald of the Center for Biological Diversity launches an over-the-top broadside against several people involved in the incoming President’s administration. The part that is most illuminating about how some extremists think is this missive directed at the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Myron Ebel ...

In National Federation of Independent Business v. Dougherty, we challenge the so-called Fairfax Memo, a substantial pro-union re-write of federal law governing workplace safety inspections. Last month, the feds moved to dismiss our challenge on procedural and substantive grounds. Yesterday, we filed our opposition to the feds’ motion to dismi ...