Articles

Author: R. S. Radford Property rights have become so weighted down with political baggage these days, the term often serves as little more than an ideological buzzword. If you’re a fan of conservative talk radio shows, you’re for ’em. If you think manipulative propaganda films about global warming should win Oscars and Peace Prize ...

Author: Brian T. Hodges  Often when I speak about the effect of regulation on property rights, I start by telling a story about 10-year old me and my good old sheepdog, Pepin.  It’s a simple story about walking a half mile from my house to our local park.  Pepin would bounce alongside me wagging his … ...

This Monday, the San Luis Obispo Superior Court will be hearing arguments on the merits of PLF’s lawsuit on behalf of a southern California family in SDS Family Trust v. California Coastal Commission.  The hearing is at 9:00 a.m., in Department 3, at 1035 Palm Street, San Luis Obispo. In this case, the SDS Family … ...

Reason’s Damon Root has an article on the Harmon case, in which the Supreme Court has been asked to take another look at New York’s perverse and iniquitous rent-control laws. You can check out PLF’s brief in the case here. … ...

Attorneys with Pacific Legal Foundation petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the takings case of their client, Coy Koontz Jr. as representative of his father’s estate. Before Coy Koontz Sr. died, he was blocked from developing commercial property that he owned in Orange County, because of confiscatory and unconstitutional demands by the ...

In this special Thanksgiving PLF Podcast, I tell the story of how the Pilgrims learned the importance of private property rights. I quote an excerpt from William Bradford’s Of Plymouth Plantation that you can read here. And Tom Bethell’s book The Noblest Triumph tells the story especially well. Don’t forget to subscribe to the p ...

In  the latest development in California’s water wars, the California Court of Appeals issued a significant decision yesterday in Property Reserve, Inc. v. Superior Court, 2014 WL 978309 (Cal Ct. App. 2014). The opinion limits the State’s ability to enter and test private land it hopes to condemn for a public water project of stat ...

Today, the Texas Supreme Court issued an opinion in Porretto v. Patterson, a complicated beach takings case.  The Porrettos have owned a dry beach area in Galveston, Texas, since the 1950’s. Some of their property lies just seaward of the Galveston seawall, between the wall and the wet beach area along the Gulf of Texas.  The Porrettos h ...

Yesterday, a San Mateo Superior Court judge issued a stunning tentative ruling in one of the two Martins Beach lawsuits pending against coastal landowner Vinod Khosla. The judge concluded that the decision to disallow the public to trespass onto private property–after allowing the public to do so for a fee–constitutes “de ...