Today Jay Bybee is a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, but apparently being elevated to the federal bench hasn't stunted his creative powers. In a case called Guggenheim v. City of Goleta, Bybee has managed to do what has eluded national property-rights advocates for decades: declare a rent control ordinance unconstitutional under the Fifth Amendment's Takings Clause.

For much of the last century—long before Congress acted—federal courts allowed plaintiffs to seek injunctions to stop all kinds of pollution. Successful suits prevented an ore smelter from releasing deadly atmospheric arsenic over the homes and families of Utah, the City of Chicago from draining its sewage into St. Louis' drinking supply, and New York City from dumping its garbage into the Atlantic, where it washed up on the beaches of the New Jersey Shore. Today, states and environmentalists are turning to these and other historic precedents to make the case that climate change, too, belongs in the courts—when the other branches of government refuse to act.

Corporations do not vote, they cannot run for office, and they are not endowed by the Creator with inalienable rights.  “We the People” create corporations and we provide them with special privileges that carry with them restrictions that do not apply to living persons.  These truths are self-evident, and it’s past time for the Court to finally get this right, once and for all.