Articles

Earlier this year, I noted that the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals endorsed extreme deference to the government when it rejected a challenge by hair braiders in Missouri to the state’s requirement that braiders be licensed as a cosmetologist or barber. In Niang v. Tomblinson, the Supreme Court of the United States has the opportunity … ...

If you aren’t already a regular reader of Overlawyered, you should check it out. Walter Olson does a magnificent job pointing out and explaining the seen and unseen costs of our legal system. Last week I was excited to see Overlawyered link to our Minerva Dairy lawsuit.* In the days that followed, the comments section … ...

The court ruled against Minerva Dairy’s claims that the Wisconsin butter grading law violates the Constitution. … ...

Though the rights to free speech and bear arms get all the press, the right to earn a living might be the most fundamental right of all.  The Fourteenth Amendment protects that right—allowing all of us the opportunity to provide for our families by pursuing a lawful vocation.  There was no better advocate for that … ...

Today, PLF urged the Florida’s Second District Court of Appeal to take up its duty to protect individual rights, and to enforce the state constitution’s protections for economic liberty. Occupational licensing has run amok.  As a White House Report recently detailed, nearly a third of Americans need a license to do their job legally.  ...

My latest law review article is available in the new issue of the George Mason U. Civil Rights Law Journal. Entitled “Rational Basis and The 12(b)(6) Motion: An Unnecessary ‘Perplexity,'” the article tries to resolve the confusion that some courts have expressed about how to resolve a motion to dismiss when the lawsuit alleges a con ...

In 1952, Emmett Ashford became the first African American umpire in organized baseball and Dwight Eisenhower was elected President of the United States. That same year, the Pennsylvania legislature decided that funeral homes needed to be heavily regulated. Under a 1952 regulation, funeral directors must obtain a license and build expensive “ ...

The Texas Supreme Court has announced that it will consider the case of Patel v. Department of Licensing, which raises the issue of what the “rational basis” test means under Texas state constitutional law. Rational basis, of course, is the test that judges use when deciding whether a restriction on economic freedom is constitutional or ...

This week, PLF filed an amicus brief asking the Texas Supreme Court to review Patterson v. City of Bellmead.  The Pattersons are challenging a law that requires a kennel permit for any property owner that has more than four cats or dogs on any single parcel of land.  The Pattersons lost their case after the Texas … ...