Here is the final brief (Petitioner’s response to the SG’s inviation amicus) in Corboy v. Louie, No. 11-336 (cert. petition filed Sep. 15, 2011), the case asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review the Hawaii Supreme Court’s dismissal of a challenge to the property tax exemptions conferred on lessees of Hawaiian Homesteads. The
June 2012
More On SCOTUS’s Property Tax (In)equality Case
By Robert H. Thomas on
Here’s more on Armour v. City of Indianapolis, No. 11-161 (June 4, 2012), the case in which a 6-3 majority of the Supreme Court held that the City’s decision to forgive the balance owing for homeowners who had not fully paid the sewer assessement, while not issuing refunds to their neighbors who had already…
9th Circuit: Hawaii’s Regulation Of Commercial Beach Weddings Does Not Violate First Amendment, Except…
This just in: the Ninth Circuit has issued an opinion in Kaahumanu v. State of Hawaii Dep’t of Land and Natural Resources, No. 10-15645 (June 6, 2012), the case challenging the State’s regulation of commercial weddings on state beaches under the First Amendment. The court mostly upheld the regulations, but struck down the…
HAWSCT Oral Arguments: The Next Big Hawaii Water Case
Watch this case: it is likely to be a landmark in Hawaii water law.
Hawaii water law cases tend to be vast adventures in history, culture, irreconcilable arguments, and oddball doctrines (e.g., appurtenant water rights are keyed to the amount of taro under cultivation at the time of the 1848 Mahele), and the…
SCOTUS: Property Owners Who Paid Sewer Assessements In Full Are Fools
By Robert H. Thomas on
That’s the essence of today’s opinion in Armour v. City of Indianapolis, No. 11-161 (June 4, 2012), in which a 6-3 majority upheld the City’s decision to forgive the balance owing for homeowners who had not fully paid the assessement, while not issuing refunds to their neighbors who had already paid in full.
The…
Does Appellate Oral Argument Matter? You Bet
By Robert H. Thomas on
It’s a frequent question: does appellate oral argument really matter?
We’ve always harbored the belief that it does in some cases, and if you have any doubts, look no further than today’s Ninth Circuit opinion in Nordyke v. King, No. 07-15763 (June 1, 2012), where the en banc court essentially concluded that the…