Courting Liberty

Key members of Pacific Legal Foundation’s development team discuss the various ways Americans can make charitable year-end gifts to advance PLF’s pro-freedom mission in the courts. 

PLF Director of Litigation James Burling discusses the most significant PLF cases of 2013 with PLF attorneys Meriem Hubbard, Damien Schiff, and Paul Beard.  From challenges to state-sponsored discrimination, to the defense of private property rights, and to the quest for a balanced application of our environmental laws, PLF had a great year in 2013 and is looking forward to an even better 2014.

PLF principal attorney Paul J. Beard II discusses the ongoing challenge to the California Coastal Commission's demands that three sisters give up a public-access easement across their Central Coast property as a condition for getting a permit to repair an old farm house and barn.

PLF defends Encinitas homeowners who are denied permits for to replace a seawall and beach staircase that were destroyed by a storm

PLF Principal Attorney Timothy Sandefur discusses the importance of property rights to the Pilgrims and to modern day Americans.

Members of PLF’s Coastal Land Rights Project discuss the year’s significant rulings in property rights cases in America’s coastal areas.

PLF takes San Jose to the state Supreme Court over its “inclusionary” housing mandate that can spike housing costs and depress supply

In briefing to the U.S. Supreme Court in the Mt. Holly case, PLF targets “disparate impact” – a theory that would allow “discrimination” lawsuits without evidence of intent

PLF Principal Attorney Timothy Sandefur and PLF Attorney Daniel Himebaugh discuss the latest developments in Sissel v. U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services. The case is now before the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.
 

PLF attorneys discuss the need to rein in over-regulation that harms the economy and property rights without benefiting species

PLF managing attorney Brian Hodges discusses an important property rights case that has been granted review at the U.S. Supreme Court.  It concerns the federal government’s “Rails-to-Trails” program, which is being used to undermine the rights of property owners when rail tracks are abandoned.

The feds issued a shut-down order to Tehama County farm, for allegedly disturbing wetlands – without providing the owners notice or an opportunity for a hearing

Williams joins PLF's College of Public Interest Law as a fellow in the foundation's national litigation center.

PLF briefs argue for color-blind public policy, in two high-profile cases before the U.S. Supreme Court this term

PLF’s lawsuit over Obamacare’s illegally enacted taxes could bring down the entire law.

PLF files as amicus to thwart a land use scheme in Florida that has dangerous consequences for property owners nationwide.

PLF challenges the unprecedented ESA listing of a healthy species, the polar bear, under a speculative “global warming” theory

A judge will hear PLF’s challenge to the unconstitutional “cap and trade” auction concocted by the California Air Resources Board

PLF is highlighting Back2SchoolChoice Week --- August 19-23 --- with discussion of several important cases, blog posts, videos and other activities.

PLF Principal Attorney Timothy Sandefur discusses recent developments in the lawsuit that targets Obamacare’s individual mandate as an unconstitutionally enacted tax.

High-density development mandates were drafted illegally, says PLF lawsuit on behalf of citizens group

PLF attorneys are challenging the federal government’s decision to end management for sea otters off the southern California coast, which will put the marine ecosystem and the livelihood of regional fishermen in danger.

PLF client Coy Koontz Jr. reflects on his family’s precedent-setting triumph at the U.S. Supreme Court

The mandate that businesses buy “carbon credits” from the state is an illegally enacted tax

PLF President Rob Rivett is joined by principal attorney Paul J. Beard and attorney Joshua Thompson to discuss Pacific Legal Foundation’s courtroom success through mid-2013, which includes PLF’s seventh consecutive victory at the U.S. Supreme Court.

PLF Principal Attorney Timothy Sandefur discusses key new developments in two moving business lawsuits.

The U.S. Supreme Court handed a victory to all property owners by ruling in favor of Pacific Legal Foundation’s client, Coy Koontz Jr., in his constitutional challenge to the heavy, unjustified demands that his family faced as a condition for a building permit.

In North Carolina, PLF fights a government scheme to transform private beachfront land into a public easement – without paying owners a penny

Entrepreneur Maurice Underwood has been sideswiped by Nevada’s ban on competition in the moving business

PLF attorneys are challenging Humboldt County’s illegal demand that a couple grant an easement as a condition for approving a permit.

PLF claims victory for two property owners who want to restore the historic Marshall Tavern on California’s Tomales Bay.

PLF calls out Solana Beach, Calif., for eroding the rights of oceanfront landowners to protect their property

Pacific Legal Foundation attorney Joshua Thompson discusses a case now pending at the California Supreme Court with huge implications for the future of charter schools.

PLF attorneys Ralph Kasarda and Tony Francois discuss a dangerous new effort in California to sideswipe Proposition 26 by imposing “taxes” on grocery store paper bags.

PLF will help in the fight to save Drake’s Bay Oyster Company

PLF attorney Ted Hadzi-Antich discusses a new lawsuit that challenges the “cap and trade” auction process as an unconstitutional state tax.

Anastasia Killian is the newest fellow in PLF’s unique program to give outstanding law school graduates hands-on experience in constitutional law.

PLF Attorney Daniel Himebaugh dissects Supreme Court’s ruling that storm water runoff on logging roads is not “industrial pollution.”

Attorneys with Pacific Legal Foundation asks the United States Supreme Court to hear PLF’s challenge to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s greenhouse gas “endangerment” finding.  PLF Staff Attorney Ted Hadzi-Antich discusses in detail.

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife has been overstepping its authority by trying to regulate water rights in California.  It recently tried to sneak a new water diversion restriction past landowners as part of an updated streamflow requirement.  After impacted property owners got wind of the effort, and consulted with PLF, the Department withdrew the proposal.  However, they have not foreclosed similar regulatory efforts in the future.  PLF Staff Attorney Tony Francois discusses the importance of water right owners remaining vigilent.

How PLF forced the feds to stop calling a Santa Fe couple’s bone-dry property, “a water of the United States”

Pacific Legal Foundation President Rob Rivett recaps the organization’s 40th birthday party at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library on March 2, 2013.

We explore Pacific Legal Foundation’s Coastal Land Rights Project with guests, PLF Principal Attorney Paul Beard and PLF Attorney Jennifer Fry.

The California Coastal Commission is effectively blocking the remodeling and reopening of the historic Marshall Tavern on Tomales Bay, by demanding unjustified and unconstitutional conditions as the price of a development permit.

So argues a constitutional takings lawsuit filed today by attorneys with Pacific Legal Foundation, a nonprofit public-interest watchdog organization that litigates for limited government and property rights, in courts nationwide.

PLF attorneys Damien M. Schiff and Jonathan Wood dicuss the case, representing the owners of the property, Daniel Altman and Avi Atid.

Attorneys with Pacific Legal Foundation today sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for illegally designating 1,544 acres of private property in St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana, as “critical habitat” for the dusky gopher frog.  Principal Attorney M. Reed Hopper dicuss the issue at hand.

PLF’s Timothy Sandefur gives an update on our federal lawsuit against the Affordable Care Act.

PLF President Rob Rivett discusses details of the 40th Anniversary Gala coming Saturday, March 2, in Simi Valley.

PLF Principal Attorney Paul Beard;  Brian Hodges, managing attorney of the Northwest Center; and PLF President Rob Rivett assess the January 15 argument in Koontz v. St. Johns River Water Management District at the United States Supreme Court.
 

PLF begins a series of podcasts to examine the federal Endangered Species Act that turns 40 years old later this year. PLF principal attorneys Reed Hopper and Damien Schiff join PLF President Rob Rivett.

PLF’s Paul Beard and Jim Burling discuss the historic property rights case, Koontz v. St. Johns River Water Management District, which Beard will argue at the Supreme Court on Tuesday, January 15
 

The United States Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) should abide by its own scientific findings, and downlist, from “endangered” to “threatened,” the manatee species found in the warm waters of Florida and elsewhere on the Atlantic Coast.  

PLF attorney Christina Martin and managing attorney in the Atlantic Center, Alan E. Deserio, dicusses the topic at hand.