2008

The US Supreme Court today denied review to three cases we’ve been following:

  • Goldstein v. Pataki, No. 07-1247 (petition for cert. filed Mar. 31, 2008) (pleading pretext post-Kelo) – Justice Alito would have granted the petition.  Justice Alito had not been appointed to the Court at the time of Kelo, so

The speed of information on the internet sure is fast.  I was preparing a post summarizing the recent Court of Federal Claims decision in Estate of Hage v. United States,No. 91-1470L (May 6, 2008), which awarded Nevadaproperty owners several million dollars in just compensation for the taking of theirvested water rights by the federal

The property owner has filed a Petition for Rehearing and Suggestion for Rehearing En Banc in AmeriSource Corp. v. United States,No. 07-1521 (Fed. Cir. May 1, 2008). 

In that case, the Federal Circuit held that when an innocent party’sproperty is seized for use in a criminal prosecution but never used as evidence, no FifthAmendment

Several items today with a common theme of eminent domain and public use –

  • PropertyProf Blog posts a link to Professor Richard Epstein’s latest article, “Public Use in a Post-Kelo World.”  I agree with Professor Barros’ recommendation: “Given the author, obviously a must-read for anyone interested in public use issues.”
  • The Honolulu

Kauaisprings2 Yesterday, we filed the Reply Brief in Kauai Springs‘ appeal from the January 2007 decision by the Kauai Planning Commission to deny three zoning permits to the small, Kauai-family-owned water bottling company.

For more information about the case, here are some links to earlier media coverage:

  • A May 2006 story about the case from

Today my Damon Key colleagues Mark Murakami, Christi-Anne Kudo Chock, and I filed for the Ocean Tourism Coalition a brief amicus curiae (88kb pdf) in the US Supreme Court supporting the petition for writ of certiorari filed in UFO Chuting of Hawaii, Inc. v. Smith, No. 07-1427 (petition for cert. filed May 12