In the 12 October 2010 SLO Tribune Nick Wilson describes the lawsuit some Harmony property owners have filed against the Coastal Commission. At issue is an easement allowing hikers to walk along the coast as part of the goal of a California Coastal Trail open to everyone able to make the trek or at least walk segments of it. The Board of Supervisors, back when the Three Amigos pushed through any right-wing proposition that came their way, removed the easement. The Coastal Commission later appealed. Now Wilson describes the inHarmonious owners as being "represented by Sacramento-based lawyer Paul Beard from the nonprofit Pacific Legal Foundation, which aims to limit government infringements and strengthen property rights."
Readers of the Tribune Viewpoint by Paul J. Beard on October 18, 2009, know that the Pacific Legal Foundation was then trying to guarantee that Franco DeCicco would be able to build—or grossly overbuild—on the property at Ocean Boulevard and Old Creek Road in Cayucos.
Readers may not know that in 2004 Morro Bay Mayor William Yates hired the PLF to assault the Endangered Species Act by delisting the harmless Snowy Plovers. A few minutes on the Internet shows the range of extreme right-wing lawsuits the "nonprofit" PLF has waged. It is, in fact, an organization designed to enrich its supporters—a reactionary anti-environmental group.
The California Chambers of Commerce founded the PLF in 1973 as a means of bringing lawsuits for the business community under the guise of "public interest" actions. This terminology turned out to be right out of George Orwell. "Public interest" as sponsored by big business means "private interest." The PLF organization is ultra-conservative, right-wing, tax-exempt, non-profit—although funded by big businesses, such as Coors. With almost limitless money, PLF lawyers have launched assaults on wetlands, on equal employment, on protections of consumer health and safety, on rent control, on labor unions, on First Amendment protection of free speech, on public right to beach access, on equal rights for gays, and on affirmative action—as well as assaults on the Endangered Species Act. In 2002 the local Council Majority hired the PLF to sue about the western snowy plover as a way of keeping dogs on the beaches, according to the mayor: "The whole snowy plover thing—it’s all about dogs." For the PLF it was not all about dogs, and not about money from Morro Bay. The PLF just wanted the cover of the name of Morro Bay to use in its lawsuit.
More recently, it’s the PLF which filed suit in Fresno federal court to challenge habitat protections for 48 endangered or threatened species of animals and plants in California—ranging from the peninsular bighorn sheep to the Yellow Larkspur to the Western Snowy Plover (and not just in SLO County).
Now Nick Wilson blandly describes the PLF as a "nonprofit" organization trying to help out a family that is fighting an easement. Could we begin describing the PLF in terms of what lawsuits it initiates and pursues? The "public" is never served by the PLF lawsuits. As Dan Bacher said on 5 February 2010 in the Central Valley segment of the California News, the PLF is "a law firm that advocates on behalf of agribusiness and other corporate interests." It gleefully rejoices every time a journalist refers to it as a nonprofit organization.
