A major challenge to the authority of the California Coastal Commission will go to the state supreme court; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms loses at the U.S. Supreme Court; and PLF attorneys use case photos to debunk the media narrative on the Clean Water Act.

Here’s what’s on The Docket.

PLF takes Coastal Commission to California Supreme Court  

The California Coastal Commission is “the single most powerful land use authority in the United States,” as UCLA law professor Jonathan Zasloff puts it. But the California Supreme Court has agreed to hear a major new challenge to the Commission’s power: the case of Shear Development, represented by Pacific Legal Foundation. After San Luis Obispo County granted Shear Development a permit to build four houses, the California Coastal Commission intervened and appealed the decision to itself. Then, at a hearing, the Commission denied all of Shear’s permits. But as Shear and PLF will argue at the California Supreme Court, local building decisions are supposed to be in the hands of local governments—not the 12 commissioners on the powerful Coastal Commission.

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Supreme Court strikes down ATF’s bump stock ban 

Since 2018, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms has been regulating bump stock devices as machine guns. But in a 6-3 decision last week in Garland v. Cargill—in which gun owner Michael Cargill was represented by our friends at the New Civil Liberties Alliance—the Supreme Court ruled that ATF had exceeded its authority. PLF filed a friend-of-the-court brief in support of Cargill, arguing ambiguous laws must be interpreted in favor of criminal defendants, not in favor of the government. Congratulations to NCLA on their victory!

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Photos from Clean Water Act cases contradict media narrative 

In a recent alarmist news segment, a WDIV reporter claimed PLF’s 2023 Supreme Court victory in Sackett v. EPA would allow pollution of drinking water and water habitats. The segment used B-roll of rivers and lush wetlands to make its point. But PLF’s Will Yeatman and Will Foster compare the media’s stock B-roll to actual photos from Sackett and other Clean Water Act cases litigated by PLF, revealing a stark difference between what the media says is happening in these cases and what’s actually happening.

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Dr. Marilyn Singleton, a trailblazer in medicine and the law

Dr. Marilyn Singleton, one of the doctors represented by PLF in a lawsuit over California’s mandatory implicit bias training, passed away unexpectedly this week. “Dr. Singleton’s legacy is one of resilience, courage, and an unwavering commitment to fairness,” PLF attorney Joshua Thompson writes. “Her dedication to her patients and her profession was evident in her tireless efforts to address problems with government entanglement in the doctor-patient relationship.” The lawsuit she helped start will continue in her absence.  

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Supreme Court passes on chance to revive nondelegation doctrine—but more opportunities wait in the wings  

On June 10, the Supreme Court declined to take up two similar cases that would have provided an opportunity for the Court to reinvigorate the nondelegation doctrine, which enforces the Constitution’s vesting of “all Legislative powers . . . in a Congress of the United States.” PLF attorney Molly Nixon explains why the nondelegation doctrine matters, and why—despite these cert denials—we might soon see it on the Supreme Court’s docket.

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