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Weekly litigation report — March 31, 2018

March 31, 2018 | By JAMES BURLING

Trial court strikes down Seattle’s rule banning landlords from selecting their own tenants PLF asks Supreme Court to clarify “temporary” takings law Florida ends Walton County’s unconstitutional land grab PLF asks California to review “endangered” species Oral argument at the Supreme Court in criminal case that c ...

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President's weekly report — May 27, 2016

May 27, 2016 | By ROB RIVETT

PLF testifies before Senate Subcommittee PLF’s Damien Schiff testified before the Senate Subcommittee on Fisheries, Water, and Wildlife concerning agency abuses of private property owners under the Clean Water Act.  (PLF’s testimony begins at minute 26:25 here).  We focused on a number of recent and ongoing PLF cases challenging E ...

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New study urges consideration of race in college admissions

October 31, 2015 | By MERIEM L. HUBBARD

The use of standardized tests in college admissions has created much controversy in recent years.  Do test scores predict college success? Are the tests fair to minorities and poor applicants?  Are applicants, whose parents did not attend college, at a disadvantage?  Some schools have stopped requiring standardized tests. But most colleges ...

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Los Angeles court redefines discrimination under Proposition 209

July 28, 2015 | By MERIEM L. HUBBARD

In early May, the Los Angeles Court of Appeal issued a decision in Cesar Baez v. California Public Employees’ Retirement System.  The decision is, for the most part, unremarkable.  But there is one controversial section that, contrary to existing case law, severely limits protections adopted by the voters in Proposition 209 in 1 ...

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Brown signs bill that purports to overturn Schuette

October 14, 2014 | By JOSHUA THOMPSON

Ten days ago, Governor Brown signed AB 2646 into law.  The stated purpose of the statute is return the law to where it was before the Supreme Court issued its opinion in Schuette v. BAMN — the case that upheld the Michigan voters ability to amend their constitution to prohibit racial preferences. The statute basically creates … ...

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California stands up for equality

March 18, 2014 | By JOSHUA THOMPSON

Proposition 209 is not going anywhere.  Efforts by certain lawmakers to repeal California’s landmark constitutional amendment ended yesterday when the the amendment’s sponsors decided to table further voting.  Students graduating in the next couple of years from California’s public high schools can rest assured that California&# ...

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Effort to reinstate racial preferences puts affirmative action into new light

March 14, 2014 | By PACIFIC LEGAL FOUNDATION

An effort to reinstate affirmative action in California highlights the paradigm shift that is happening with respect to the purposes and effects of affirmative action.  The affirmative-action paradigm is that affirmative action allows universities to admit racial/ethnic minorities over more-deserving Caucasian students – or at least to admit rac ...

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California Senate wants voters to give state universities the power to discriminate

January 31, 2014 | By JOSHUA THOMPSON

In a vote that fell along strict party lines, the California Senate Democrat supermajority voted yesterday to put a controversial constitutional amendment on the November ballot. SCA5 would give universities the power to judge students on the basis of race when they are applying for admission to a school in the University of California or … ...

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Coverage of PLF at the Supreme Court for Schuette

October 22, 2013 | By JOSHUA THOMPSON

Last week I was in Washington, D.C. for the oral argument in Schuette v. Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action.  This is the case that is challenging whether voters have the right to prohibit racial preferences by government.  In 1996, California voters becase the first to adopt such a ban when they passed Proposition 209, and since that time ...