The Docket: September 18, 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.
PLF’s Brittany Hunter shares a Constitution Day reminder; a retired U.S. Army general fights to keep trespassers off his property; and the Mortgage Bankers Association files suit challenging New Jersey’s disparate impact rule.
239 years later, the Constitution still depends on the people
The American Founding and the Constitution it helped build turned the world upside-down and changed the relationship between government and the people, placing government under limits it had never answered to before. While a written Constitution may establish limits on government, as PLF’s Brittany Hunter points out, it cannot make government obey them.
For over 50 years, PLF has filled the gap—helping Americans fight back when governments step out of their constitutional bounds and violate property rights, deny equal treatment under the law, or exercise authority that belongs to another branch of government.
Retired general challenges local sheriff’s attempt to ban him from excluding trespassers
Brigadier General Billy Don Farris served in the U.S. Army for over 30 years, earning a Purple Heart for his service in Iraq. When he retired from the Army, he bought an 80-acre farm in Gloucester County, Virginia, where he could enjoy the area’s rich history and the peace of the natural world alongside his family.
Unfortunately, the peace General Farris hoped to enjoy is marred by frequent trespassers entering his woods with packs of dogs to hunt. Worse still, the local government condones it.
Now, General Farris has partnered with PLF in filing a federal lawsuit aiming to restore his property rights and strengthen the property rights of other Virginians and property owners across the country.
Trade association challenges NJ rule pressuring businesses to discriminate on the basis of race
The government cannot punish businesses or property owners for treating everyone equally. But under New Jersey’s disparate impact rule, businesses can be held liable for discrimination if their practices produce results that differ across racial groups—even where the results are completely unintentional.
Represented by PLF free of charge, the Mortgage Bankers Association—a national trade association of the real estate finance industry, representing more than 2,000 member companies—is fighting back with a federal lawsuit.
Justice Gorsuch charts the path to “return, all the way, to the Constitution”
Earlier this summer, the Supreme Court took a major step toward restoring the separation of powers when it ruled—in Trump v. Slaughter—that congressional limitations on the president’s authority to remove commissioners of the Federal Trade Commission are unconstitutional.
Before Slaughter, limitations on the president’s removal power insulated independent agencies—like the Federal Trade Commission, National Labor Relations Board, Consumer Product Safety Commission, and others—from constitutional accountability. But even after Slaughter, these agencies still exercise legislative, executive, and judicial powers.
In his concurrence, Justice Neil Gorsuch offers a call to action: “From here, the only sure path is to finish the journey we start today and restore legislative and judicial powers to where they belong: in Congress and the courts.”
PLF in the News
- The Washington Post: ‘Black boxes’ on lobster boats set a dangerous precedent for America
- The Hill: More discrimination among expectant moms is a bad prescription
- National Review: It’s Not Just the Economics, Stupid
