Senior Attorney, Pacific Legal Foundation
Reed Hopper is a Senior Attorney in PLF’s Environmental Law Practice Group. He oversees the Foundation’s Endangered Species Act Program that is designed to ensure that species protections are balanced with individual rights, the rule of law, and other social values. Reed also oversees PLF’s Clean Water Act Project that targets illegal federal regulation of local land and water use.
Reed has always had a strong patriotic spirit and a desire to serve his country. Before joining PLF in 1987, Reed served as an Environmental Protection Officer and Hearing Officer in the U.S. Coast Guard where he gained a love for the law. He also loves our constitutional way of life and cannot tolerate injustice. PLF affords him the opportunity to rectify unjust actions perpetrated by overreaching government. He enjoys getting up each morning to fight for a just cause.
Reed has litigated and won precedent-setting environmental and land use cases at all levels of the state and federal courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court. He has published numerous articles and testified before Congress as an expert witness.
Reed graduated from the University of California, Davis, with a Bachelors Degree in German and major work in biochemistry. He also did graduate business studies at California State University and Tulane University and earned his Juris Doctor Degree from the University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law.
Senior Legal Counsel, Pacific Legal Foundation
Before becoming an attorney, James had been a productive member of society working as an exploration geologist in the late 1970s throughout the southwestern United States. However, after several years of dealing with irrational government bureaucrats and environmental policies untethered from reality, James decided that what the world needs is more lawyers — if they are willing to fight for rationality in regulatory regimes, property rights, and liberty.
James attended the University of Arizona College of Law in Tucson, where he served as an editor for the Law Review and received a J.D. degree in 1983. He had previously received a Masters degree in geological sciences from Brown University and an undergraduate degree from Hamilton College in New York. James received the Professional Achievement Award from the University of Arizona Alumni Association in 2018.
James has worked with Pacific Legal Foundation since 1983, litigating cases from Alaska to Florida. 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. The Owners Counsel awarded James its Crystal Eagle award in 2013. 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.
In 2001, James successfully argued a major property rights case, Palazzolo v. Rhode Island, before the United States Supreme Court, a case which affirmed that rights in regulated property do not disappear when land is bought and sold. He has written extensively on all aspects of property rights and environmental law and frequently speaks on these subjects throughout the nation.
When James is not suing the government he enjoys skiing faster than he should, bicycling, hiking, swimming, and spending quality time with his wife, family, and grandchild.
Mr. Burling’s book Nowhere to Live: The Hidden Story of America’s Housing Crisis is available now on Amazon.
James is a member of the bar only in the states of Alaska and California.
Senior Attorney, Pacific Legal Foundation
Reed Hopper is a Senior Attorney in PLF’s Environmental Law Practice Group. He oversees the Foundation’s Endangered Species Act Program that is designed to ensure that species protections are balanced with individual rights, the rule of law, and other social values. Reed also oversees PLF’s Clean Water Act Project that targets illegal federal regulation of local land and water use.
Reed has always had a strong patriotic spirit and a desire to serve his country. Before joining PLF in 1987, Reed served as an Environmental Protection Officer and Hearing Officer in the U.S. Coast Guard where he gained a love for the law. He also loves our constitutional way of life and cannot tolerate injustice. PLF affords him the opportunity to rectify unjust actions perpetrated by overreaching government. He enjoys getting up each morning to fight for a just cause.
Reed has litigated and won precedent-setting environmental and land use cases at all levels of the state and federal courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court. He has published numerous articles and testified before Congress as an expert witness.
Reed graduated from the University of California, Davis, with a Bachelors Degree in German and major work in biochemistry. He also did graduate business studies at California State University and Tulane University and earned his Juris Doctor Degree from the University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law.
Courthouse Steps: Oral Argument in National Association of Manufacturers v. DOD
M. Reed Hopper
Multiple legal challenges to the Army Corps of Engineers and the Environmental Protection Agency’s controversial rule...
Courthouse Steps: Oral Argument in National Association of Manufacturers v. DOD
Environmental Law & Property Rights Teleforum
TeleforumTopics
High Stakes in "Waters of the United States" Rulemaking
The Clean Water Act (“CWA”) gives the Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) and the U.S. Army...
Final Agency Actions and Judicial Review: United States Army Corps of Engineers v. Hawkes Co.
James S. Burling
Note from the Editor: This article discusses the Supreme Court’s recent decision in United States Army...
WOTUS comes to SCOTUS: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers v. Hawkes Company Decided - Podcast
On Monday, May 31 the United States Supreme Court issued an 8-0 opinion in U.S. Army...
WOTUS comes to SCOTUS: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers v. Hawkes Company Decided
TeleforumWOTUS comes to SCOTUS: Oral Arguments heard in U.S. Army Corps of Engineers v. Hawkes Company - Podcast
Can the Feds keep the courthouse doors closed to you when they have effectively frozen...
WOTUS comes to SCOTUS: Oral Arguments heard in U.S. Army Corps of Engineers v. Hawkes Company
TeleforumTopics
Supreme Court Preview: American Farm Bureau Federation v. EPA
At its February 19th conference, the Supreme Court will consider whether to hear American Farm...
Topics
States Get Wins Against Federal Overreach
States suing federal agencies have recently convinced two courts to put two major federal rules...