Pacific Legal Foundation

Pacific Legal Foundation We sue the government—and we win.

08/26/2026

If you’re injured by the negligence of a federal employee—through medical malpractice, a car accident, or some other careless mistake—you generally have the right to sue the United States for compensation.

But if you’re a member of the Armed Forces, that right disappears, all thanks to the Feres doctrine.

BREAKING: We’re challenging the Army Corps of Engineers' attempt to regulate a small irrigation ditch under the “navigab...
08/26/2026

BREAKING: We’re challenging the Army Corps of Engineers' attempt to regulate a small irrigation ditch under the “navigable waters” rule. The Corps has used this ditch to block a Utah homebuilder's 265-home building project for years.

Lew Swain did everything by the book. He adapted his plans to protect wetlands and cooperated with the Corps' escalating demands for years. The agency still unilaterally denied his permit. This is an abuse of the Clean Water Act.

Under the CWA, the Army Corps only has authority over "navigable waters,"not every ditch and damp patch of land in the country. The Supreme Court made that limit explicit in Sackett v. EPA. Agencies don't get to rewrite the law to grab power Congress never gave them.

Jake teaches dogs to avoid the western rattlesnakes native to the Sacramento area. He was helping protect local pets and...
08/20/2026

Jake teaches dogs to avoid the western rattlesnakes native to the Sacramento area. He was helping protect local pets and police K-9 units until he hit an arbitrary roadblock from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.

CDFW permits the use of native snakes for educational programs, but claims charging a fee turns the service into illegal “commercialization.” The agency says Jake can only run his classes if he provides them for free or uses non-native or albino rattlesnakes.

The First Amendment protects your right to teach and share knowledge. That right doesn’t disappear when businesses charge for their time and expertise. Photography by Rick Wenner

An unaccountable employee of the National Marine Fisheries Service issued a sweeping ban on swimming with Hawaii’s spinn...
08/19/2026

An unaccountable employee of the National Marine Fisheries Service issued a sweeping ban on swimming with Hawaii’s spinner dolphins. This killed an entire industry and cut Catherine Gatzimos off from the therapy that helped her heal from past trauma. We’re challenging this unconstitutional rule.

Catherine traveled to Hawaii after a personal trauma and found a breakthrough in swim-with-dolphin therapy that talk therapy never gave her. Now no one in Hawaii can receive similar treatment due to NMFS’s Approach Rule.

The Constitution's Appointments Clause reserves the power to issue binding federal regulations for Senate-confirmed officers. The NMFS Deputy Assistant Administrator held no such appointment and was not accountable through the democratic process when he signed the dolphin ban.

We challenged the same rule before, but a Senate-confirmed administrator retroactively approved it. The Fourth Circuit said that only works if the administrator could have lawfully handed off rulemaking power to begin with (which he couldn’t).
The Constitution requires officials who issue binding regulations to be properly appointed and accountable to the people, yet the ban continues. We’re representing Catherine free of charge to challenge this unconstitutional rule.

Border agents searched immigration attorney George Anibowei's phone without a warrant five times since 2016. The governm...
08/18/2026

Border agents searched immigration attorney George Anibowei's phone without a warrant five times since 2016. The government still has that data today. We’re asking the Supreme Court to end warrantless phone searches at the border.

Anibowei represents immigrants in deportation cases, so his phone holds privileged client communications. Worried that the next search could expose privileged conversations with clients, Anibowei now must leave his phone behind whenever he travels abroad.

The Supreme Court has already recognized that Fourth Amendment protections for cell phones must be strong because a modern phone holds the sum of a person’s private life. Federal appeals courts are split over whether border agents need a warrant to search cell phones.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, where Anibowei brought his case, held that a warrant is never required to search a cell phone at the border.

We’re asking the Supreme Court to resolve that circuit split and affirm that the border is not a Constitution-free zone.

Together with Trial Lawyers for Justice, Texas Civil Rights Project, and Arnold & Porter, we’re urging the Supreme Court to take up this case and vindicate Anibowei’s Fourth Amendment rights.

Seattle’s community garden program sorts applicants by race, moving Black, Indigenous, and Hispanic applicants to the fr...
08/17/2026

Seattle’s community garden program sorts applicants by race, moving Black, Indigenous, and Hispanic applicants to the front of a waitlist. Future gardeners must also sign an “Anti-Racist” pledge to receive their plot. We’re partnering with Fair For All to challenge both.

The Constitution doesn't let the government hand out public benefits based on skin color. And it doesn't get to make you affirm its ideology as the price of a garden plot. That's discrimination and compelled speech.

Seattle can run a fair, first-come waitlist without race-sorting applicants or scripting what they believe. There's nothing "just" about deciding who gets to garden based on identity instead of need.

We're giving Seattle until August 20 to drop the race-based priority list and the mandatory statement.

The “citizen suit” provision of the Clean Water Act allows unelected and unaccountable private citizens to use the execu...
08/12/2026

The “citizen suit” provision of the Clean Water Act allows unelected and unaccountable private citizens to use the executive branch’s power to enforce federal law. We’re suing on behalf of a West Virginia business to stop this unconstitutional delegation of power.

This West Virginian manufacturing plant has produced specialized carbon and graphite materials since 1906. Amsted Graphite Materials LLC bought the century-old facility in 2020 and entered agreements with the EPA and WVDEP to reduce environmental impact.

Amsted is completing the upgrade project on the schedule determined by the state. The government is satisfied that Amsted is following the law, so why are two environmental groups attempting to use government power to stop them?

Unelected citizens don’t have the authority to govern. The “citizen suit” provision of the Clean Water Act is an unconstitutional delegation of executive power that violates the separation of powers.

BREAKING: A 2016 presidential decree banned fishing across 5,000 square miles of the Atlantic Ocean under a misuse of th...
08/03/2026

BREAKING: A 2016 presidential decree banned fishing across 5,000 square miles of the Atlantic Ocean under a misuse of the Antiquities Act. The Trump administration rescinded the ban, and now two New England fishermen asked the court to let them defend its rollback.

Frank Green and Bob Conrad fish the waters near Georges Bank. Under the Obama-era ban, they face fines up to $100,000 a day and loss of their licenses for working there. The ban has flipped three times with three administrations — now an environmental group wants it revived.

The Antiquities Act of 1906 lets presidents protect land-based objects of historic interest — it says nothing about banning commercial fishing across thousands of miles of ocean. Presidents have stretched a narrow statute into a sweeping power Congress never gave them.

Greenwashing an abuse of power doesn’t legitimize it. The government cannot use narrowly tailored laws to justify sweeping bans on the productive use of natural resources.

07/31/2026

Tattooing someone's head, face, or neck can land you in jail in South Carolina.

Artists, including tattoo artists, have the First Amendment right to expression. That's why we're suing to fight this unconstitutional restriction.

Where better to toast the American tradition of dissent than right in front of the Declaration of Independence?As we mar...
07/29/2026

Where better to toast the American tradition of dissent than right in front of the Declaration of Independence?

As we mark 250 years since the Founding, we’re proud to carry that same defiant spirit into the courtroom every day.

Thanks to everyone who could join us with guest Dr. Arthur Brooks as we launched our new podcast, In Dissent, hosted by Anastasia 🗽

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