Articles

Author:  Damien M. Schiff Any attorneys out there interested in some MCLE credit are welcome to tune in to a webinar this Friday, at 12 pm PDT, hosted by the Real Property Law Section of the California State Bar.  I'll be debating  Jennifer Maier, of the Environmental Law Foundation, about whether the public trust doctrine &# ...

Farmers in the Scott and Shasta Valleys of California’s Siskiyou County got an early gift on Christmas Eve, when the Siskiyou County Superior Court handed down a favorable ruling in their legal battle with the California Department of Fish and Game over whether the Department can issue permits to regulate water rights in California.  The &# ...

In North Carolina, Texas, California and other regions, Pacific Legal Foundation has worked diligently to protect the property rights of coastal land owners . We have also fought for many years to ensure that property owners of all sorts have equal access to the federal courts to defend their constitutional rights. Today, the Fourth Circuit … ...

Environment — Clean Air Act PLF and the National Association of Manufacturers filed this joint opposition brief in Alec L. v. McCarthy which is now before the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.  We intervened in this case in order to explain that there is no “public trust doctrine” for air that requires government to regulate … ...

This week, Pacific Legal Foundation filed an amicus brief in Environmental Law Foundation v. State Water Resources Control Board.  The brief, filed on behalf of the California Farm Bureau Federation, addresses the constitutional consequences of applying the public trust doctrine to groundwater extraction.  The public trust doctrine is a common l ...

Water Rights — The Public Trust Doctrine and The Blob In 1958 American audiences first saw Steve McQueen as a teenager trying to save his town from The Blob, the ever-expanding amoeba-like alien monster that threatened to engulf everything in its path.  This week, almost fifty-six years later, our own Damien Schiff filed this amicus brief ...

Earlier this month, the Sacramento Superior Court held a hearing in Environmental Law Foundation v. State Water Resources Control Board, in which the environmentalist plaintiffs are seeking an expansion of the public trust doctrine to groundwater extraction that negatively affects navigable waters.  We filed an amicus brief on behalf of the Califo ...

If you have ever walked along North Carolina’s ocean beaches or even seen photos, you will notice that there are many beach cottages on, or immediately adjacent to, the dry sand areas of the beach. This is because the dry sand beach area is privately owned land in North Carolina, as it is in most coastal … ...

Environment — No trust in the air The D.C. Circuit issued this short unpublished per curiam decision in Alec L. v EPA, beating back a strange attempt to assert a “public trust” in the air.  This case seems to have been brought more for its optics than any serious legal argument.  This, and about 50 companion suits filed R ...