September 2010

Here’s a case that reveals exactly what is wrong with the Supreme Court’s ripeness doctrine in Williamson County Regional Planning Comm’n v. Hamilton Bank, 473 U.S. 172 (1985). As we noted in this post, it’s “a seemingly endless procedural game where property owners are forced to keep guessing which shell the pea is…

In a case that could write the next chapter in the Kelo saga, the property owner recently filed this cert petition asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review the decision of the New York Court of Appeals in the Columbia “blight” case, Kaur v. New York State Urban Development Corp., No. 125 (June 24…

No, thankfully this post is not about the MTV show, but who owns the new dry sand created when the government “replenishes” beaches. In a case reminiscent of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Stop the Beach Renourishment v. Fla. Dep’t of Envt’l Protection, 130 S. Ct. 2592 (2010), the New Jersey Supreme…

Not a landmark case, but one worth noting. In Mathews v. City of Chattanooga, No. E2009-01418-COA-R3-CV (Sep. 15, 2010), the Tennessee Court of Appeals rejected the property owner’s claim that the city exceeded the scope of a utility easement when it installed fiber optic cable. The property owner asserted the easement was limited to…

We’ve been kind of light on the blogging lately (epic road trip combined with brief writing does not a happy blogger make), but we did want to give a heads-up that our Owners’ Counsel of America colleagues Dennis Dunphy and Jill Gelineau have launched a new blog focusing on condemnation and land use issues in…

Here are the latest briefs in United States v. Tohono O’odham Nation, No. 09-846, (cert. granted Apr. 19, 2010), the case involving the subject matter jurisdiction of the Court of Federal Claims currently awaiting argument in the U.S. Supreme Court. Disclosure: we filed an amicus brief supporting the Tohono O’odham Nation in the case.…

The Supreme Court’s multiple opinions in Stop the Beach Renourishment v. Fla. Dep’t of Envt’l Protection, 130 S. Ct. 2592 (2010), although unanimous in concluding that the Florida Supreme Court’s decison was not a judicial taking, were not the last words on the subject. Six justices concluded that in the right circumstances, a decision…

The Federalist Society has published an assessment of the Washington Supreme Court’s approach to state constitutional law, and to us the most interesting part is the first section on property rights in the Evergreen State.

Michael Bindas, David K. DeWolf & Michael J. Reitz, The Washington Supreme Court and the State Constitution: A 2010 Assessment…

Check it out: the William and Mary Property Rights Project and the Institute of the Bill of Rights Law will present the 7th Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Conference on September 30 to October 1, 2010. The recipient of this year’s prize is lawprof Carol M. Rose (U. Arizona).

More information, including a link to registration information here, from the Owners’ Counsel of America blog.
Continue Reading Upcoming Conference: 7th Annual Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Conference (9/30)