Law-abiding residents of Hawaii want to own folding pocket-knives with split handles, also sometimes known as butterfly knives. But this type of knife is banned in Hawaii. This prohibition violates the Second Amendment-protected right to keep and bear arms, since the word “arms” applies to knives and other bladed weapons.
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Teter v. Connors
To Keep and Bear (All Types of) Arms
Law-abiding residents of Hawaii want to own folding pocket-knives with split handles, also sometimes known as butterfly knives. But this type of knife is banned in Hawaii. This prohibition violates the Second Amendment-protected right to keep and bear arms, since the word “arms” applies to knives and other bladed weapons.
Center for Biological Diversity v. Bernhardt
Ranchers Bent But Not Broken
Embattled Arizona ranching families are making their final stand against the radical environmentalists who are determined to run them off the land. Well-heeled environmentalist groups are chipping away at the right of ranchers to exist—one lawsuit at a time.
Center for Biological Diversity v. Bernhardt
Saving The Last Cattle Drive
American ranchers have a right to make a living off the land, as they have for generations, on Wyoming’s Upper Green River Drift. Under attack from environmental extremists, these ranchers ride with the knowledge that their next cattle drive could be their last.
Robert Aragon, et al. v. Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham, et al.
New Mexico’s Unconstitutional Gun Store Closures
Even in an emergency, constitutionally protected rights must be defended. New Mexico’s governor shut down the state’s firearms retailers as part of her emergency shut down orders designed to stop the spread of COVID 19. But her order illegally deprives citizens of their Second Amendment protected rights. MSLF filed a lawsuit, on behalf of multiple individuals, firearm retailers, and a litany of Second Amendment advocacy organization, to vindicate those rights.
Center for Biological Diversity v. U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Junk Science Threatens Southwestern Ranchers
Tom Paterson’s Spur Ranch Cattle Company is an excellent steward of public grazing lands in New Mexico. But he and dozens of other ranchers are at risk of being put out of business by radical environmentalists and their junk science.
Pena v. Horan
California’s De Facto Handgun Ban is Unconstitutional
California has imposed many unconstitutional requirements upon handguns to limit purchases. By requiring non-standard or non-existent features, the state has effectively created a ban on handguns. As a result, California residents are being unfairly denied their Second Amendment protected rights.
Students for Fair Admissions v. President and Fellows of Harvard College
A Fight for True Equality at Harvard
Mountain States Legal Foundation filed an amicus curiae brief Feb. 25, 2020, supporting Students for Fair Admissions’ lawsuit because Harvard’s admissions system is unconstitutional. Equality under the law should be protected.
Monex Deposit Company, et al. v. Commodity Futures Trading Commission
Changing The Rules Is Risky Business for the Economy
The CFTC changed the rules regarding Monex Deposit Company’s business, after years of approving of their business model. Sudden rule changes and retroactive enforcement like this infringe on constitutional due process protections. They also put citizens, businesses and the economy at risk.
Center for Biological Diversity v. Bernhardt
Environmentalist Lawyers' Big Power Grab
America’s ranching families raise the livestock that feeds and clothes this country. But environmentalist lawyers are plotting to put them out of business and seize control of the western lands where cattle and sheep have freely roamed for a hundred years.
John and Martha Corrigan, et al. v. Bernhardt
Cattlemen Fight to Survive in Heart of Cowboy Country
Parents should have the right to pass down to their children what they’ve worked so hard for all their lives. But when the Hanleys decided to pass their family ranch on to their children, they learned the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) illegally cancelled their grazing rights.
WildEarth Guardians v. U.S. Forest Service
Radical Environmentalists' War on Sheep
Radical environmentalists want to put sheep ranchers out of business in Colorado. The outcome of this case could determine the future of the sheep industry throughout the Southern Rockies.
New York State Rifle & Pistol Ass’n v. City of New York
New York's Second Amendment Showdown
New York City officials act as if they believe the Second Amendment does not apply to them. They made it illegal to transport a licensed, locked, and unloaded handgun to a home or shooting range outside of city limits. This regulation must be overturned.
Rayco, LLC v. Bernhardt
Fighting to Save the Family Legacy
Emerson and Fay Ray were a young couple, recently married, when they first came to California. It was the height of the Great Depression and Emerson had heard he might be able to get a job in California pouring concrete. Now the government is threatening to destroy the legacy they built for their family.
Love Terminal Partners, L.P. v. United States
Texas Property Owners Left Empty Handed
The Constitution mandates that private property cannot be taken without just compensation. In this case the government and well-connected businesses colluded to take what didn’t belong to them, and a small group of Texas property owners were left empty-handed.
Hererra v. Wyoming
Farmers and Ranchers Are the Backbone of This Country
Farmers and ranchers lease federally managed land to raise their flocks and herds, and ultimately to feed millions of Americans. They pay large sums of money to lease those grazing lands. Some American Indian tribe members are claiming the right to hunt on the land the government leases to farmers and ranchers in the state of Wyoming, even though it’s a clear violation of their tribal treaty with the United States.
Kisor v. Wilkie
Honoring Our Commitment to Those Who Served
Federal agencies have been growing in size and influence for decades. This case represents a once-in-a-generation opportunity to turn back the tide. The case centers on a Vietnam War veteran, Mr. James L. Kisor, and his 37-year struggle to obtain veteran’s medical benefits. But what is at stake is much more than one man’s benefits—it is about reining in the out-of-control power of unelected, big-government bureaucrats.
Wilderness Society v. Trump
Even Presidents Aren't Above the Law
President Clinton and President Obama created two illegal national monuments in rural Utah, causing serious economic harm to the hard-working westerners who live in the area. President Trump reversed the land grab but was sued for his efforts to restore the rule of law.
American Stewards of Liberty v. U.S. Department of the Interior
Caught in the Government's Web
In 1988, the FWS listed as endangered the Bee Creek Cave Harvestman, a cave-dwelling spider found only in subterranean limestone caves in Travis and Williamson Counties, Texas. When the federal government bars use of private property to protect species that are found only in a local area and not throughout the country, it violates the Constitution’s Commerce Clause.
WillSource Enterprise LLC v. Interior Board of Land Appeals
A David v. Goliath Battle Over Property Rights
A small, family-owned Colorado oil and gas exploration company holds oil and gas leases in the White River National Forest in Colorado. Despite more than twenty years of investment in this area, extremists are trying to drive this small company out of business, no matter what the law says
Caldara v. City of Boulder
Our Freedom Includes the Right to Self-Defense
The city of Boulder imposed a sweeping ban of the most popular and widely-owned firearms and magazines in America. Residents of Boulder now face heavy fines and jail time for the mere possession of firearms that are legal throughout the United States. In a blatant act of discrimination against a political minority, the city council also unconstitutionally raised the minimum age for firearm possession in Boulder city limits to twenty-one.
Brigida v. U.S. Department of Transportation
The FAA's Racial Politics Endangered Public Safety
The Obama administration dropped a skill-based system for selecting and hiring air traffic controllers, and replaced it with a new system designed to favor applicants on the basis of their race. The FAA purged its system of thousands of previously-qualified, ready-to-hire applicants simply because they did not fit the right biographical profile. The government endangered public safety and owes restitution for this grave injustice.
Crow Indian Tribe v. United States of America
A Great-Grandmother and a Grizzly Bear
Our client Mary A. Thoman, a Wyoming rancher whose family has raised sheep in western Wyoming for nearly seven decades, had to give up her family grazing land after her livestock losses to the grizzly bear became too great. One of her ranch hands was nearly killed in an attack. A judge put the bear back on the endangered species list—contrary to the recommendation of 20 years of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service research and the pleas of ranchers and citizens of Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming. This makes it impossible for local and state officials to manage the growing grizzly population, and virtually guarantees more loss and death.
Solenex, LLC v. Bernhardt
The Government is Not Above the Law
Federal bureaucrats, including the Secretary of the Interior, have no authority to cancel a lawfully issued oil and gas lease unless Congress has provided them that authority. Our client, Sidney Longwell, first purchased a federal oil and gas lease in Montana’s Lewis and Clark National Forest in 1982. Despite passing decade-long environmental and archeological reviews, the Clinton administration suspended his lease in 1993, and continued to suspend the lease ultimately for over two decades.
Ministerio Roca Solida v. United States
The Government Made a Desert Out of Paradise
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, without obtaining a permit, and over the objections of a hydrological expert, diverted a stream that flowed through the land owned by a small church, headed by Pastor Victor Fuentes. The resulting flooding destroyed the property, and the bureaucrats who did this think no one will hold them accountable.
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Since 1977, MSLF has fought to protect private property rights, individual liberties, and economic freedom. MSLF is a nonprofit public interest legal foundation. We represent clients pro bono and receive no government funding. Make your 100% tax deductible contribution today and join the fight.