Articles

Earlier this year, a photographer was criminally prosecuted for violating the Endangered Species Act. His crime? He got within 500 feet of a snail kite — an endangered bird — while taking pictures. And last month, surfers were warned that they could be prosecuted if there were any right whales nearby while they were catching … ...

For the first time, a federal court has struck down federal regulation of a species under the Endangered Species Act, holding that the Constitution doesn’t give the federal government limitless powers. People for the Ethical Treatment of Property Owners members are property owners and local government in southwestern Utah who have suffered f ...

PLF has filed a motion to intervene on behalf of the New Mexico Cattle Growers’ Association, New Mexico Federal Lands Council, and the New Mexico Farm and Livestock Bureau in a case that threatens to radically expand criminal liability under the Endangered Species Act. If the case is successful, we’ll all need to quickly become … ...

Today, PLF submitted a petition with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, challenging a regulation that illegally extends the Endangered Species Act’s burdensome take prohibition to all threatened species. The petition argues that federal bureaucrats have no authority to reverse Congress’ judgment that the stringent take prohibition sh ...

Today, PLF filed its opening brief in a challenge to the Fish and Wildlife Service’s denial of a petition demanding that the agency follow the law. This case centers on a sea otter compromise that Congress struck between the Service, environmentalists, and those who work and play in Southern California waters. Recently, the Service has ̷ ...

This week, PLF submitted a petition, on behalf of the Washington Cattlemen’s Association, asking the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to repeal a regulation that illegally forbids the “take” of all species listed as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act. This regulation has a huge impact on property owners in Was ...

Over on the Huffington Post, Noah Greenwald of the Center for Biological Diversity launches an over-the-top broadside against several people involved in the incoming President’s administration. The part that is most illuminating about how some extremists think is this missive directed at the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Myron Ebel ...

Last week, PLF’s motion to intervene was granted in a case threatening to radically expand criminal liability under the Endangered Species Act. As you may recall, we represent several southwestern agricultural organizations who, like pretty much everyone else, face the prospect of imprisonment for innocent mistakes if this case succeeds.  ...

William Blackstone famously said “it is better that ten guilty persons escape than one innocent suffer.” Today, the criminal law honors that venerable principle by forbidding anyone from being criminally punished unless they commit an illegal act with a blameworthy state of mind. That’s why mens rea (or guilty mind) is an element ...