Wilmer Chavarria is a Vermont school superintendent and an American citizen. This summer he was detained at Houston's George Bush Intercontinental Airport for over four hours while agents went through his electronic devices. Under a Directive issued in 2018, border patrol agents claim the power to conduct warrantless searches of Americans’ personal devices within an expansive “border zone” encompassing any location within 100 miles of U.S. borders. Now, represented by PLF, Chavarria is challenging that power in court.

For more than 20 years, Amy Siple has served the state of Kansas as a geriatric nurse practitioner with an impeccable record. During a period when she was caring for her seriously ill husband, her license briefly lapsed. As soon as she discovered the oversight, she renewed it, and it was approved within a week. Yet after an investigation, the Kansas State Board of Nursing concluded she had acted “unprofessionally”—even though all Amy had done during that brief lapse was advertise dementia-education speaking events, many of them outside of Kansas, and she truthfully listed her credentials on her website. With PLF's help, Amy is petitioning for judicial review of the Board's decision to punish her.

Located about 20 miles northeast of Knoxville, Luttrell is home to just over 1,000 Tennesseans. The town is the birthplace of country music stars Chet Atkins and Kenny Chesney and, now, the site of a legal challenge to the Clean Water Act’s “citizen suit” provision. Under this provision, an Alabama-based organization named Tennessee Riverkeeper sued the small town of Luttrell for allegedly exceeding discharge permit limitations. With PLF's help, the town is now challenging the law that allowed Tennessee Riverkeeper to assume the government's power.

In this month's episode of American Heroes, PLF’s Kathy Hoekstra sits down with Sarah Dahlstrom, whose father founded Viking Lumber. Viking is now challenging the Forest Service's blatant attempt to circumvent Congress and block access to timber. Sarah, who works alongside her dad as a fierce advocate for Alaska timber workers, shares how her family built Viking from the ground up and discusses her fears for the future of the industry.

Two years ago, the Supreme Court struck down Harvard and UNC’s discriminatory racial preferences as unconstitutional, banning affirmative action in college admissions. But in the wake of that decision, schools and government entities often resorted to discrimination by proxy, including proxies for race like ZIP Code and income. Now proxy discrimination could be used in government contracting, PLF attorneys warn.

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