James S. Burling

Mr. Burling has worked with Pacific Legal Foundation since 1983, litigating cases from Alaska to Florida. He served as PLF’s director of litigation for many years. In 2001, James successfully argued a major property rights case, Palazzolo v. Rhode Island, before the U.S. Supreme Court, which affirmed that rights in regulated property do not disappear when land is bought and sold.

He is a member of the Federalist Society’s Environmental Law and Property Rights Practice Group’s Executive Committee, a member of the American College of Real Estate Lawyers, and an honorary member of Owners Counsel of America, an organization comprised of eminent domain attorneys who represent property owners.

In 2022, James was awarded the Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Prize at the William & Mary College of Law. The prize is awarded annually to an individual whose work has advanced the cause of property rights and has contributed to the overall awareness of the important role property rights occupy in the broader scheme of individual liberty.

Mr. Burling’s book Nowhere to Live: The Hidden Story of America’s Housing Crisis, reveals how the government layered mistake upon mistake to create the current crisis of housing affordability. It also provides a way out: not by government fiat, but through the restoration of private property rights.