Articles

Supreme Court should grant cert in timber sale appeal

January 19, 2018 | By CALEB TROTTER

PLF has filed an amicus brief in support of Scott Timber and the Union, and urged the Supreme Court to take up this case. … ...

Articles

Oregon Supreme Court cites broad statute in upholding egregious abuse of licensing power

June 08, 2017 | By ANASTASIA BODEN

We received an adverse ruling in our lawsuit on behalf of David Hansen, which challenged a ruling by the Oregon Board of Architects that David practiced unlicensed architecture when he created marketing drawings.  These drawings were not blueprints or plans; they were meant to help a property development company attract retailers to potential deve ...

Articles

Oregon court rejects claim for public access to private lake

May 10, 2017 | By BRIAN HODGES

Late last week, Oregon’s court of appeals issued its long-awaited decision in the case, Kramer v. City of Lake Oswego—a case in which two public access activists shockingly claimed that the “public trust doctrine” should be extended to create easements across dry, upland property so that the public can gain access “to . . ...

Articles

Oregonian : Do you need a license to draw pretty pictures?

March 16, 2017 | By ANASTASIA BODEN

The Oregonian has published my op-ed on PLF client David Hansen, who was fined $30,000 for making marketing drawings without an architect’s license.  As I write in the op-ed: David’s story is just one example in a trend of licensing bodies interpreting their authority broadly to prevent people from competing with licensees. Both ends o ...

Articles

PLF argues in Oregon Supreme Court that laws should benefit the public, not cronies

December 06, 2016 | By ANASTASIA BODEN

Though occupational licensing laws are often justified in terms of health or safety, studies show that licensing regimes are more often bare attempts by entrenched business interests to protect their market share.  The result of such crony laws is that entrepreneurs are barred from pursuing an honest living, with no corresponding benefit to the pu ...

Articles

Federal supremacy protects miners' rights

July 21, 2016 | By PACIFIC LEGAL FOUNDATION

PLF and Western Mining Alliance have filed an amicus brief in the Ninth Circuit case Bohmker v. Oregon. In the brief, we argue that federal mining policy preempts Oregon’s ban on a federally-approved and encouraged mining practice. Part of having a federalist system of government is deciding which level of government gets final say when R ...

Articles

The Center for Biological Diversity goes batty

February 15, 2016 | By JONATHAN WOOD

The Center for Biological Diversity is threatening to sue the Fish & Wildlife Service for not imposing ruinous and unnecessary restrictions on private property owners throughout 37 states to protect the Northern long-eared bat. It contends that heavy-handed “take” regulations should be imposed despite the fact that the species is th ...

Articles

PLF files amicus brief in Oregon “right of access” case

March 27, 2015 | By BRIAN HODGES

In Oregon—as in most states—a landowner whose property abuts a highway has a right to directly access that road. Thus, an abutting owner is entitled to just compensation when the state acquires the landowner’s right of access in an eminent domain action. Or at least that’s how the story is supposed to go. … ...

Articles

PLF files amicus brief in the Oswego Lake public access lawsuit

November 25, 2014 | By BRIAN HODGES

Today, PLF attorneys filed an amicus brief with the Oregon Court of Appeals in Kramer v. City of Lake Oswego—a case in which two public access activists argue that the “public trust doctrine” should be extended to create easements across dry, upland property so that the public can gain access “to . . . navigable … ...