Articles

The answer to that question should be simple. After all, the Due Process Clause of the U.S. Constitution protects "life, liberty, or property" without qualification. And, for nearly a century, the U.S. Supreme Court has consistently treated property as a fundamental right, forbidding the government from imposing arbitrary or irrational restrictions ...

On Friday, I participated in a teleforum hosted by the Federalist Society on the Juliana case, currently pending in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The case is a challenge brought by several youth and an environmental organization challenging the federal government's alleged failure to regulate greenhouse gas emissions in a manner adequate to p ...

Letter sent to school board in Florida on First Amendment violation Brief filed over EPA's road ban Butter ban ruling sought California union-inspired anti-free speech rule appealed Free enterprise loses in Oregon Golden parakeet feathers to fly! Caribou decision years behind schedule Victory for Wildlife Sanctuary's Due Pr ...

caption id="attachment_43324" align="alignright" width="300" Buckeye Lake/caption Should courts defer to democracy? Many do. In fact, most constitutional challenges face an uphill battle because courts hesitate to question the judgment of legislatures. In a brief filed today in the North Carolina Supreme Court, we explain how this judicial restrai ...

The Environmental and Land Use Law Section of the Florida Bar (ELULS) recently published my article about a forgotten protection provided by Florida's Bert J. Harris, Jr., Private Property Rights Protection Act. Twenty-one years ago, the Florida Legislature passed the Act to provide additional property rights protections to those already recognized ...

Pacific Legal Foundation is disappointed to report that the U.S. Supreme Court will not hear Kentner v. City of Sanibel, a PLF case that asked whether constitutional due process guarantees apply to private property. Although the Fourteenth Amendment guarantees that no state shall "deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due proces ...

Friday, Pacific Legal Foundation filed an amicus brief with a Florida appellate court in a shocking case of local government gone awry: The Town of Ponce Inlet v. Pacetta, LLC. According to the trial court, the Town Council broke its promises of fair dealing, instead tying the hands of developers who had already invested millions and started constr ...

PLF is continuing the fight to help shoreline property owners in Bainbridge Island, Washington, secure a legal remedy for losses they suffered when the city put a series of unlawful development moratoria on their properties.  In 2007, the Washington Supreme Court held that the city did not have authority to enact the moratoria.  But when the proper ...

Tomorrow the Supreme Court of Georgia will hear arguments in WMW Honda v. American Honda Motor Company, a case that will determine the scope of a Georgia law that allows existing car dealerships to block the opening of competing dealerships in their area. As I discussed in a prior blog post, this case arose when Honda "made the mistake" of placing ...