The Docket: June 19, 2026
The Docket is PLF’s weekly newsletter covering the cases, clients, and policy battles shaping the future of liberty in America. You can catch up on last week’s Docket here and subscribe below to receive future editions in your inbox.
A Honolulu resident fights back after being hit with $600,000 in fines over a website error; the House Oversight Committee opens an investigation into DC’s continued practice of home equity theft; and PLF’s Tobias Russell and Megan Jenkins argue America’s mineral dependence is largely a choice.
High school student wins fight for equal access to UCSF hospital internship
A high school student with dreams of a medical career ended her lawsuit last week after reaching a favorable settlement with UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital in Oakland.
The settlement ensures that the hospital’s prestigious CHAMPS program—the Community Health and Adolescent Mentoring Program for Success—admits students without regard to race.
PLF attorney Andrew Quinio celebrated the victory, noting that “no student should be turned away because of the color of her skin.”
The Hill: America’s mineral dependence is dangerous and unnecessary
In their latest in The Hill, PLF’s Tobias Russell and Megan Jenkins argue that America’s mineral dependence is largely a choice. “America has substantial deposits of many of the very minerals it imports from abroad,” they explain. “Yet Washington makes it extraordinarily difficult to develop those resources.”
They point to PLF research that explores why mine permitting is “painfully slow, costly and uncertain”—resulting in an average 29-year timeline to open a new mine in the U.S., the second-longest timeline in the world behind Zambia.
City demands $600,000 for advertising a rental
After a serious car crash forced her into a lengthy hospital stay in 2024, PLF client Sandra May returned home to the news that her local government had slapped her with nearly $600,000 in fines—over a simple website error.
Now, she’s fighting back with PLF’s help—arguing that the City of Honolulu is using its short-term rental prohibition as a revenue-generating scheme in violation of its residents’ constitutional rights.
House Oversight Committee investigates DC’s home equity theft
On Tuesday, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform opened an investigation into the District of Columbia’s continued practice of home equity theft (HET)—a practice where the government seizes and sells a home over a small tax debt, then pockets all remaining value.
The Committee’s announcement notes that DC’s ongoing practice of HET runs directly counter to the Supreme Court’s unanimous 2023 ruling in favor of PLF client Geraldine Tyler, which held that such practices violate the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment.
As Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the landmark decision, “The taxpayer must render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s, but no more.”
Rhode Island rolls back barriers to healthcare access
Last week, Gov. Dan McKee signed Rhode Island’s state budget, enacting a significant rollback of the state’s determination of need laws—commonly known elsewhere as certificate of need laws.
“Determination of need laws don’t protect patients—they protect incumbents,” said PLF’s Jaimie Cavanaugh. “Rhode Island families deserve access to the care they need, and that means letting providers build, compete, and innovate without forcing them to first get permission from their competitors.”
