Equal Protection

It’s not often that you see an opinion piece previewing an attorney’s arguments in a pending case being published before his or her brief has been filed. Most commonly, if counsel publishes in the op-ed pages about a case, it is afterthe brief has been filed or after the court has rendered adecision. Thus, the…

How often in an appellate opinion does the court use the term “glom?” 

[The Appellee] gloms onto the “police power” aspect of the definition [of regulatory fees] in arguing that “Medeiros plainly concern[ed] the ‘police power’ of ‘criminal investigative services,’ not a user fee as suggested by [the state].”

No matter what you may…

When must a landowner challenge a land use regulation she claims illegally impact her property?  Talk to a lawyer, and they’re usually going to say that you should act sooner than later, and often the time limitations are very short. Under California law, for example, facial challenges to a zoning ordinance must be brought within…

In a significant development and unexpected move, the Solicitor General has filed in the U.S. Supreme Court an amicus brief on behalf of the United States strongly supporting the State of Hawaii’s position in the ceded lands case, asserting the Apology Resolution was “hortatory, not substantive,” and that the ceded lands trust is supposed to…

In an significant development, on December 11, 2008, the Solicitor General filed an amicus brief in the ceded lands case now pending before the U.S. Supreme Court. We’ll post the brief shortly. The federal government’s participation was not expected. 

This amicus brief has the potential to influence the Court, as the Solicitor General is sometimes…

Today, we filed an amicus brief in the ceded lands case on behalf of Pacific Legal Foundation, the Cato Institute, and the Center for Equal Opportunity, available here.

The core issue of this case is whether a state court, interpreting federal law, may enjoin the State of Hawaii from exercising its sovereign authority to…

The Mountain States Legal Foundation, “a nonprofit, public-interest law firm . . . dedicated to bringing before the courts those issues vital to the defense and preservation of individual liberties, the right to own and use property, the free enterprise system, and limited and ethical government” today filed an amicus brief in the Hawaii ceded…