Articles

Can courts dismiss “rational basis” cases without hearing evidence?

November 25, 2014 | By TIMOTHY SANDEFUR

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 ...

Articles

PLF urges Fourth Circuit : give business owners the chance to prove their cases

March 06, 2013 | By TIMOTHY SANDEFUR

Under legal precedents established in the 1930s, business owners who want to defend their constitutional right to earn a living against unreasonable government interference face a very difficult task. They must overcome the “rational basis test,” a legal theory that says the judge must presume that the law is constitutional and the busi ...

Articles

Claremont Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence files brief in support of PLF's Hettinga petition

November 23, 2012 | By TIMOTHY SANDEFUR

The Claremont Institute’s Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence has filed this friend of the court brief in support of our petition for certiorari in Hettinga v. United States. As the brief points out, this case involves one of the central problems that the Constitution’s authors sought to combat: anti-competitive legislation designed ...

Articles

Why the Hettinga case is important

October 31, 2012 | By TIMOTHY SANDEFUR

Reason’s Damon Root, Instapundit’s Elizabeth Foley, and the Yuma Sun explain why our petition for certiorari in Hettinga v. United States is so important. The case is about more than the legality of federal price-fixing laws for dairies—awful as such laws are. No, this case is about whether people have the right to challenge the cons ...

Articles

Pacific Legal Foundation urges Supreme Court to give business owners their day in court

October 19, 2012 | By TIMOTHY SANDEFUR

Today, we filed this petition for certiorari with the United States Supreme Court, asking the justices to review a case that severely restricts Americans’ right to challenge the constitutionality of laws. The case, Hettinga v. United States, began when Arizona dairy owners Hein and Ellen Hettinga sued over a federal law that targeted their bu ...