The California PWL requires employers on “public works” projects to pay union-scale prevailing wages. It combines uncertainty about which projects are public works with an administrative enforcement procedure that is probably unconstitutional but has never been seriously questioned.
The CWA prohibits the discharge of pollutants into “waters of the United States” (WOTUS). It combines a crushing penalty regime – including daily fines of over $40,000 – with head-spinning uncertainty as to which bodies of water qualify as WOTUS. The uncertainties of the CWA are now back before the Supreme Court in Sackett v. EPA.
Sign law combines traditional real property law, land use and zoning, First Amendment, and other aspects of constitutional law. The First Amendment aspects of sign regulation are now before the Supreme Court for the first time in 40 years.
