Articles

A federal court in D.C. just threw out a case in which extreme environmentalists tried to force the United States to take immediate steps to curb carbon dioxide emissions to permanently reverse global warming.  Fearing the federal government would not adequately defend the lawsuit,  PLF successfully intervened in the lawsuit on behalf of severa ...

Florida has some great legal protections for private property. For example, the Bert J. Harris Act passed in 1995, was designed to protect private property from government actions that “inordinately burden, restrict, or limit private property rights” but that may not rise to the level of an unconstitutional taking. Unfortunately, that s ...

Last week, the D.C. Circuit issued a short unpublished decision in Alec L. v. EPA, beating back a strange attempt to assert a “public trust” in the air. As previously noted, the case was part of a concerted effort by environmentalists seeking to force the federal government and every state government in the nation to … ...

Last month, the Sacramento Superior Court issued a decision in Environmental Law Foundation v. State Water Resources Control Board, holding among other things that Siskiyou County cannot issue any new well permits unless it assesses the impacts of new groundwater withdrawals on the Scott River.  The decision is the first of a California court hold ...

Several years ago, Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF) become involved as lead counsel in two important beach property disputes out of North Carolina, as discussed further here.  The cases are Town of Nags Head v. Toloczko and Sansotta v. Town of Nags Head.  In both cases, the Town denied repairs for private beach cottages, and tried to remove the ...

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 … ...

In Nies v. Town of Emerald Isle, PLF attorneys represent North Carolina property owners whose dry beach front land has been converted into a roadway for Town and public vehicles by Town laws. The owners — the Nies — sued the Town of Emerald Isle, asserting that it had unconstitutionally taken their property by authorizing an ongo ...

On August 24, 2015, the North Carolina Court of Appeals will hold an oral argument in the important beach takings case of Nies v. Town of Emerald Isle. That case, described more fully here, involves a Town’s attempt to re-define a strip of a couple’s dry sandy beachfront land as a Town vehicle service lane and a … ...

Today, the North Carolina Supreme Court agreed to review the case of Nies v. Town of Emerald Isle, a beach property rights dispute pitting a couple’s right to limit access to their beachfront land against a local government’s desire to open it up the land to public and town driving. The case arises from Emerald Isle, a barrier islan ...