BREAKING: The California Supreme Court just unanimously ruled that the California Coastal Commission unlawfully overrode a county-approved building permit — one of the most significant checks on the Commission's power in the 40 years since Nollan v. CCC. 2/ Shear Development bought eight residential lots in Los Osos in 2003 and built infrastructure with county approval to build homes in two phases. San Luis Obispo County approved the phase-two permits in 2017. Then the CCC came sniffing around. swordandscales.org/property-right…

BREAKING: Pacific Legal Foundation and the American Sports Council are petitioning the federal government to repeal a decades-old Title IX policy that has quietly eliminated opportunities for thousands of college athletes. 2/ At California Baptist University, athletes just learned their wrestling, swimming, and golf programs are being cut. For decades, schools have found it easier and cheaper to pass the Department of Education's "three-part test" by eliminating men's teams, not expanding women's. pacificlegal.org/wp-content/upl…

BREAKING: San Luis Obispo told homebuilders they could get their permits — but only if they handed over a home at a massive loss or paid a $98,900 inclusionary housing fee. Today, we filed suit to stop the government from imposing unconstitutional fees on builders. 2/ John Ruda, Jordan Knauer, and Rami Zarnegar bought a rundown house, demolished it, and built 4 homes and 4 ADUs. The city demanded a $98,900 "inclusionary housing" fee or the right to sell one of the units at a massive loss to the builders.

Here's a wild story.

Recently one of our attorneys received a "cease and desist" letter from another attorney because of our opposition to reparations for black Americans 🧵 First, some background: For decades, we have been reporting and speaking out against government efforts to reward or disadvantage individuals based on their race.

pacificlegal.org/reparations-ro…

Our client Frank Black wasn't convicted of a crime in a court of law. He didn’t scam his customers. No independent judge or jury found him guilty. ⬇️ But he was still treated as guilty of fraud: Regulators accused him of providing false documents about his travel to remote brokers’ offices and of failing to preserve emails.

Let's talk about the Constitution's original Short King, James Madison.

Like Johnny Cash, he always dressed in black.

At 5'4", Madison proved it’s not the size of the Founder in the fight but the size of the fight in the Founder that counts. James Madison is remembered as the “Father of the Constitution" for good reason. His unique approach to politics balanced majority rule & minority rights through a series of battles that forged our constitutional system.

Squatting is getting a lot of attention lately. Here's a looong 🧵 on why it's immoral / illegal, why it’s growing, & how to stop it, courtesy of @MillerAppeals

https://twitter.com/MillerAppeals/status/1773373502831128933

“Squatting” describes moving into a property without any legal claim or title to the property. Such a person is “squatting”—living on—someone else’s property without consent from the owner.

🧵 Let's talk fireworks regulations. 🎆

Under federal law, a “pop” or “poof” is legal. A “boom” or “bang” is not. What could be unclear with that, one might ask. 1/15 The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) enforces some of the nation’s fireworks laws.

For one of their regulations, CPSC created an astonishingly arbitrary noise test: 2/15

In July 2022, our clients Josh Sabey and Sarah Perkins took their sick infant son to the emergency room after he woke up feverish and screaming in the middle of the night. Their concerns about their sick child resulted in them losing custody for a month. After running multiple tests on baby Cal, an X-ray showed he had a healed fracture. The parents had no idea how this happened, but the hospital intervened and treated them like criminals.