Courting Liberty

PLF Director of Communications Harold Johnson hosts a discussion with PLF Senior Staff Attorney Tony Francois about Pacific Legal Foundation's ongoing case, Duarte v. Corps of Engineers. A recent ruling against the Duarte family has major implications not only for Duarte Nursery, but for farmers across the United States.

PLF's Harold Johnson is joined by PLF Principal Attorney Joshua Thompson to discuss Pacific Legal Foundation's Back To School Choice Week. The week is designed to bring light to School Choice issues all across the United States and highlight how PLF is fighting in the courts to help improve the education system by allowing parents the right to choose a school for their children.

Pacific Legal Foundation's Harold Johnson talks with PLF attorney Larry Salzman and his client Dart Cherk about an illegal fee that was imposed on them in the sale of their property in San Rafael, California.

PLF Director of Communications Harold Johnson sits down with PLF Senior Staff Attorney Tony Francois to discuss how The U.S. Supreme Court is being asked to hear a South Dakota farming couple’s lawsuit over the federal government’s “rigged” formula for labeling their property as “wetlands” converted to agricultural uses.

PLF's Harold Johnson interviews PLF attorney Jonathan Wood and Jack Field, executive vice president of the Washington Cattlemen's Association about their petition to change an illegal regulation to the Endangered Species Act. In a petition filed with the U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife, the WCA and PLF demand repeal of a regulation that applies the “take” ban in a blanket way to all species classified as “threatened,” contrary to congressional intent and the statute’s text. This regulation subjects ranchers and farmers in the Pacific Northwest — along with citizens from coast to coast — to the possibility of massive fines and even jail for land use activities that Congress has deemed legal.

Pacific Legal Foundation's Director of Communications Harold Johnson discusses PLF's 2016 law student writing competition with PLF Atlantic Center Managing Attorney Mark Miller. The Program for Judicial Awareness (PJA) has been designed to generate sound scholarship to support constitutional litigation — and promotes understanding of our civic institutions among the people. If you are a law student and are interested in learning more about this writing competition, which features cash prizes of $5,000, $3,000, and $1,000 for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place, please visit https://www.pacificlegal.org/pja

Pacific Legal Foundation's Harold Johnson speaks with PLF Principal Attorney J. David Breemer and his client Edward Goodwin about how the County of Walton in Florida is denying Goodwin's right to free-speech by banning beach-signs on his property.

PLF Director of Communications Harold Johnson hosts this week's podcast with PLF Staff Attorney Wen Fa and client Karl Trautwein as they discuss PLF's property rights case against the city of Highland, California. The city imposes exterior and interior inspections on residential rental units, and is trying to force property owner Karl Trautwein to submit to an inspection without the city obtaining a warrant. PLF argues that cities cannot force an owner of private rental property to allow a warrantless administrative search; nor can cities threaten administrative action and fines against a property owner who exercises his constitutional right to deny a warrantless inspection of his rental property.

PLF D.C. Center Executive Director Todd Gaziano heads up a special conversation with PLF's new incoming President and CEO, Steven Anderson. PLF General Counsel and Interim President John Groen also joins in on the discussion, as Steven is introduced and provides his detailed vision for the future of Pacific Legal Foundation.

PLF Director of Communications Harold Johnson interviews PLF attorney and Director of the Liberty Clinic project, Larry Salzman, about their case titled Jisser v. City of Palo Alto. The Jisser family would like to get out of the mobile home park business in Palo Alto as they look forward to retirement, but the City demands that they pay millions of dollars in “mitigation” payments to their tenants as a condition of receiving a permit to close the park.

Harold Johnson interviews PLF Principal Attorney Damien Schiff about a California central valley farm family that is waging an important litigation fight for accountability in government. The case is currently before the California Supreme Court in which PLF has submitted an amicus brief in support of the Gerawan family and their challenge to an abusive labor relations scheme.

PLF Director of Communications Harold Johnson talks with Director of Litigation Jim Burling recapping the cases of 2016 so far and just how historic the year has been for the non-profit.

PLF’s Richard Fields speaks with PLF principal attorney Reed Hopper, PLF principal attorney Damien Schiff and Managing Attorney Mark Miller about PLF’s 9th Supreme Court victory in Kent Recycling Services, LLC v. US Army Corps of Engineers. The group also discusses how Pacific Legal’s win in Hawkes Co. helped pave the way for Kent Recycling.

PLF won a precedent-setting victory for property owners’ rights when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in our favor in the PLF case of United States Corps of Engineers v. Hawkes. The groundbreaking decision accepted PLF’s arguments that landowners have a right to seek judicial review when their property is designated as wetlands subject to federal jurisdiction under the Clean Water Act. PLF Director of Communications Jim Burling hosts a round table discussion with PLF case attorneys Reed Hopper and Mark Miller, client Kevin Pierce, and Gray Plant Mooty Principal Attorney Nancy Burke discussing the implications of the case for property owners around the country.

PLF Director of Litigation Jim Burling hosts a candid one on one sit down with PLF President and CEO Rob Rivett to discuss his upcoming retirement, his incredible work advancing the mission of PLF, some of Rob's favorite memories at PLF, and the bright future of Pacific Legal Foundation moving forward.

PLF's Harold Johnson hosts a conversation with PLF attorney Larry Salzman and his client Arty Vogt about an economic liberty case that is limiting Arty's moving business in West Virginia. Because of an old certificate of need law in the state a competition moving company located more than 100 miles away was allowed to veto his certificate of need, denying Arty's company to make moves for his loyal customer base within the state of West Virginia.

The Army Corps of Engineers is illegally imposing its control over tens of millions of acres in Alaska by impermissibly labeling permafrost as “wetlands” subject to federal jurisdiction under the Clean Water Act. This classification violates the Corps’ own 1987 wetlands delineation manual, which Congress has ordered the agency to follow until such time as a new nationwide manual is adopted, and which does not recognize permafrost as jurisdictional wetlands.

Harold Johnson and Joshua Thompson are joined by PLF client La'Shieka White to discuss her suit over race-based transfer and enrollment restrictions for St. Louis-area public schools that will block her son from attending the school of his choice next year — simply because he is black. Until recently, Mrs. White lived in the City of St. Louis, where her nine-year-old son, Edmund, is a third-grader at Gateway Science Academy, a charter school in south St. Louis. The family has now moved to Maryland Heights, Missouri, in St. Louis County, but they would like to continue enrolling Edmund in Gateway, where he has been excelling since kindergarten. However, they are barred from doing so in the coming school year, because he would have to transfer into Gateway from their new residence in the County — and the St. Louis Transfer Program would not allow him to do so, because he is African-American. The St. Louis Student Transfer program allows only non-black students living in the County to transfer to public school

Harold Johnson and Jonathan Wood revisit PLF’s defense of Andy Johnson, who felt the weight of the EPA’s overreach when he built an environmentally beneficial stock pond on his property in Wyoming. In 2012, Wyoming farmer Andy Johnson dammed a stream on his private property, creating a stock pond to provide water to his livestock. The pond was constructed to maximize its incidental environmental benefits, including creating habitat for fish, wildlife, and migratory birds, establishing wetlands, and cleaning the water that passes through the pond. Nevertheless, in January, 2014, the EPA issued a compliance order against him, claiming that the deposit of dredge and fill materials to create the dam violates the CWA, and threatening him with fines of $37,500 per day that he doesn’t do what EPA demands.

It shouldn’t require a team of lawyers, tens of thousands of dollars in legal expense, and years of fighting just to replace an aging mobile home within a mobile home park. But that’s the reality in California when your mobile home replacement requires a permit from the state’s Coastal Commission. Join PLF Director of Communications Harold Johnson as he digs into what in the world is going on at the coast of Capistrano Shores with PLF Attorney Larry Salzman and PLF client Eric Wills, as Mr. Wills gives an impassioned account as to what the Coastal Commission is doing to him, his family, and many more residents in Capistrano Shores.