Here’s the latest in the Casitas case from the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. Casitas Municipal Water Dist. v. United States, No 05-168L (Dec. 5, 2011). This case highlights the importance of identifying the “property” right alleged to have been taken in these type of cases:
This case is before the court following a…
Tomorrow, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in PPL Montana v. Montana, No. 10-218 (cert. granted June 20, 2011), a case in which the Montana Supreme Court disregarded 100 years of private or federal ownership of the riverbeds under more than 500 miles of river, and held that the state owned them.
Today’s post is by an old friend and colleague, Paul Schwind. He’s been following the federal litigation challenging the $4+ billion Honolulu rail project, and attended last week’s hearing. We asked him to write a guest post so the rest of us could come up to speed.
Update: December 13, 2011
In Honolulutraffic.com et al.
In Joffe v. City of Huntington Park, No. B222880 (published Dec. 2, 2011), the California Court of Appeal affirmed the trial court’s dismissal (technically, the trial court “demurred” — remember, this is California) of the plantiffs’ claim for inequitable precondemnation activities under Klopping v. City of Whittier, 8 Cal.3d 39 (1972).
Plaintiff manufactures…
A couple of interesting stories have come our way today, offering a contrast and a case study in how property rights are, as Professor James Ely notes, “the guardian of every other right.”
First, Generations Of Housing Red Tape, a report about the difficulties in purchasing property on the Pine Ridge reservation…
For those who tuned in to today’s webinar Eminent Domain: Redevelopment Challenges for Local Government, here are the cases I spoke about during my session:
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From today’s Bloomberg, a report about the two recently-filed lawsuits alleging the federal government’s takeover of AIG in 2008 was unconstitutional. One suit was filed in federal court in New York against the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the other, seeking $25 billion in just compensation, was filed in the U.S. Court of…
U. Hawaii Law School alums – comes this devastating news from Dean Avi Soifer:
Dear Members of the William S. Richardson School of Law Community;
I have the awful task of informing you that Professor Jon Van Dyke passed away earlier today while at a conference in Australia.
I am personally so very sorry to…
The EPA has filed its merits brief in Sackett v. EPA, No. 10-1062, the case in which Idaho property owners are asserting their right to challenge the agency’s assertion via a “compliance order” that a portion of their land are “wetlands” and that they violated the Clean Water Act.
The EPA’s brief asserts that…
Object on other grounds: the brief is filed too late, it raises waived issues, the brief does not conform to the rules, the cover sheet is the wrong color. Whatever.
But please, do not object on the basis that “amicus curiae” means “friend of the court,” and the filer is really a friend of the…
