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Earlier this year, we introduced you to Wesley Yu—a PLF client and California dad taking on his city’s predatory zoning scheme. When Wesley set out to build a home...
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A California family secures a resounding victory in property rights battle; a former medical school dean petitions the Supreme Court to revisit the McDonnell Douglas test; and PLF clients fight to overturn a 3-million-acre, Biden-era “monument” designation.
Note: We'll be off next week and will resume The Docket on December 5. Happy Thanksgiving!
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California family wins settlement after City charges $55K to build ADU
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Earlier this year, we introduced you to Wesley Yu—a PLF client and California dad taking on his city’s predatory zoning scheme. When Wesley set out to build a home where his daughter could play safely and relatives could visit comfortably, the City of East Palo Alto forced him and his wife into an impossible choice: either designate the guest unit they had planned to build as “affordable housing”—to be rented out to strangers, forever—or pay an “in-lieu” fee of nearly $55,000.
Rather than accepting the City’s extortionate demands, Wesley chose to fight back—and on Tuesday, he earned a resounding victory.
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The Washington Post: A century-old law could cost these fishermen their livelihoods
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Bob Conrad and Frank Green have spent much of their lives working the Georges Bank region of the North Atlantic—a famously fertile fishing ground just off the coast of New England. But in 2021, Joe Biden signed a presidential proclamation that upended their lives—designating more than 3 million acres of Georges Bank as a protected “monument,” banning commercial fishing in the area in a devastating blow to New England’s iconic fishing industry.
In Spring 2024, PLF attorneys filed a federal lawsuit on Bob and Frank’s behalf seeking to rein in the president’s illegal rulemaking, restore the separation of powers, and vindicate the rights of all Americans to earn an honest living. Their case remains active.
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When trail running became a crime: the presidential pardon that set Michelino Sunseri free
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Two weeks ago, record-breaking mountain runner and PLF client Michelino Sunseri received a presidential pardon, clearing his name after the National Park Service unfairly hit him with criminal charges.
This week, PLF’s Brittany Hunter brings us a closer look at the bizarre details of Michelino’s devastating ordeal—in his own words: “I haven’t ever felt like I did anything wrong. I never did anything that hundreds or thousands of people haven’t done before me. And being singled out to be made an example out of it doesn’t feel like justice. It doesn’t feel American.”
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‘Certificate of need’ and occupational licensing laws restrict access to healthcare. States can do better.
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Certificate of need (CON) laws and occupational licensing pose unnecessary barriers to life-saving medical care. In a recent law review article, PLF’s Jaimie Cavanaugh and Anastasia Boden analyzed how these restrictions
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impose undue burdens on patients and practitioners.
“Instead of protecting public health and safety, these restrictive laws and policies protect incumbent providers from competition and prevent trained professionals from serving their communities.”
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Challenging the McDonnell Douglas burden-shifting test
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In 2017, Dr. Julio Licinio was hired as dean of the College of Medicine at SUNY Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, New York. Shortly after observing what he felt was an entrenched system of discriminatory practices and raising his concerns to the school administration, he was abruptly removed from his dean position, and his salary was slashed by more than half. After filing suit, he then discovered an entirely different form of injustice—a complicated, 52-year-old, judge-made framework known as the McDonnell Douglas burden-shifting test.
Despite evidence of retaliation—including suspicious timing, no prior performance issues, and a university representative’s own admission about reasons for his demotion—the courts dismissed Dr. Licinio’s case because he couldn’t meet the test’s requirements. Now, with PLF’s help, Dr. Licinio is asking the Supreme Court to restore the constitutional principle that only Congress makes laws, ensuring employees like him can access the clear civil rights protections Congress provided without navigating unnecessary judicial obstacles.
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Navigating the web of agency authority with AI
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In their latest article in the Yale Journal on Regulation, PLF visiting fellow Patrick McLaughlin and strategic research manager Mitchell Scacchi argue that—despite the overwhelming concern over the use of artificial intelligence—one of the most promising use cases for AI is regulatory reform.
With the recent launch of PLF’s Nondelegation Project
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—a database linking every part of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) to its underlying statutory authority—the power of AI has transformed an otherwise-incomprehensible, more-than-190,000-page behemoth into an interactive website accessible to anyone.
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Proposed CFPB rule protects creditors—like PLF client Barry Sturner—from censorship
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Last week, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) proposed a new rule amending the regulation that was used to censor PLF client Barry Sturner, former owner of a small mortgage brokerage firm, Townstone Financial, Inc.
In March 2025, following an internal investigation launched under the new administration, CFPB officials determined that their case against Barry and Townstone—alleging racial discrimination—was both legally and factually baseless. CFPB filed a joint motion with Townstone seeking to vacate a November 2024 settlement and return the $105,000 fine paid by the firm, but shockingly, a federal judge rejected the motion a few months later, calling the government’s reversal on the case “breathtaking” but “unpersuasive.”
Steve Simpson, director of PLF’s separation of powers practice, called the proposed amendment "a significant improvement," noting that the rule in question “has been overly broad and vague for decades, leading enforcement agencies to enjoy broad power to threaten creditors with financial ruin for saying things that Washington bureaucrats found offensive.”
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