Eric Shear

PLF is going to the U.S. Supreme Court once again, making this our 14th time we’ve been before the high court. This time, we are fighting for the First Amendment rights of voters nation- wide. In Minnesota Voters Alliance v. Mansky, we’re representing Minnesota voters in their challenge to a state- wide ban on political buttons, badges, and t-shirts at the polling place.

PLF made its mark at the Supreme Court of the United States defending private property rights as protected by the Constitution and Bill of Rights, and we hope to add to our proud record in a case from the Florida Keys known as Ganson v. City of Marathon.

As a general matter, Americans like to speak their mind. And since the earliest days of our nation, as political philosopher Alexis de Tocqueville noted, Americans have joined associations to amplify their voices in common cause. The First Amendment protects these fundamental rights.

Nollan Outcome • In 1987, PLF won the Nollan case at the Supreme Court of the United States. That decision holds that when a property owner seeks a government permit, the government may not condition the permit on the uncompensated surrender of a public easement, unless it is necessary to mitigate harm caused by the property use.

After a rising senior, J.P. Krause, won his senior class presidency election in a landslide, the Vero Beach school administration punished J.P. for a humorous campaign speech he offered the day before the election. They removed him from the presidency and gave him detention.

Lauded for their taste and quality, Willie Bird Turkeys are sold by the tens of thousands each Thanksgiving in grocery stores and Williams-Sonoma catalogs. Willie has spent five and a half decades building his brand by combining traditional, free-range farming with sophisticated monitoring technology, and now he’d like to spend some time relaxing with his grandkids on his beloved Marin County property.

When you're in a long-term fight for freedom, you must treat any setbacks as challenges to keep advancing. That is how property rights advocates must respond to a recent defeat at the U.S. Supreme Court.

Government cannot steal. That was the essence of Justice Scalia’s majority opinion in Nollan v. California Coastal Commission. If government demands someone’s property in exchange for a permit, then the taking of the property must reduce a serious harm caused by the permitted development. It’s not enough that the government might want the property for “the public good.” Instead, the taking must directly reverse a harm that would otherwise be caused by the development.

Like many PLF Clients, Arty Vogt simply wanted the opportunity to start a business and compete freely.

PLF exist to establish a rule of law under which all Americans may live free in their pursuit of happiness. We fight to preserve and advance the American ideals of individualism and liberty, and our mission has never been more vital. Individualism is the animating moral principle of our Constitution. It is the idea that each person is an end in himself, endowed by nature with rights to think and act according to his own conscience and interests. Government is a servant, on this view, and it is good to the extent that it protects individuals’ rights to life, liberty, and property.

In the 1980’S the California Coastal Commission forced landowners to pay a price to obtain a coastal development permit. When permits were approved, they included an exaction requiring the owners to dedicate a portion of their property to the state to provide public access across their land. Even when the development did not interfere in any way with existing public access, the Commission demanded its tribute. You want a permit? Pay up with some of your property.