A short one, but one worth noting. In Howard v. United States, No 09-575L (CFC Aug. 1, 2012), the U.S. Court of Federal Claims once again rejected the government’s too-clever-by-half argument in a railbanking case.
Thanks to colleague Thor Hearne for the heads-up on this decision.
Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law, Howard v. United States, No. 09-575L (Ct. of Federal Claims Aug. 1…Continue Reading CFC Rejects Attempt To
Did we mention its the Supreme Court of the Republic of Palau?
Apply here.Continue Reading Want To Be A Supreme Court Justice? Apply Now!
Florida land use and environmental law attorney Jake Cremer has posted the Brief in Opposition in Koontz v. St. Johs River Water Management Dist., No. 11-1447 (cert. petition filed May 30, 2012), the case asking whether the Nollan/Dolan nexus and proportionality tests apply to a land-use exaction that takes the form of a government demand that a permit applicant dedicate money, services, labor, or any other type of personal property. We posted the cert petition here.
Jake writes:
The U.S. Supreme Court has not yet given much more guidance on exactions, and confusion has been the result. The Florida Supreme Court forged its own path, holding that the Nollan-Dolan test only applies to (1) exactions of real property (2) where a permit was actually issued and imposed an exaction. Consequently, in Florida, there are now relatively few restrictions on what a local government can ask
Continue Reading BIO In SCOTUS Florida Exactions Case: Fla Supremes Ruled Only Under Fla Law
If actor John Cusack is in favor of using eminent domain to condemn underwater mortgages, who are we to be naysayers? In light of his support, we’ll just have to revisit our earlier skepticism.
After all, he was awarded the Medal of Honor, you know. Continue Reading Actor John Cusack Granted Tenure On Law School Faculty
Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy is well known to people in Hawaii, or at least should be. After all, he penned the majority opinion in Rice v. Cayetano, 529 U.S. 495 (2009), the decision invalidating Native Hawaiian-only voting for trustees of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, a state agency whose mission is to “protect Hawai’i’s people and environmental resources and OHA’s assets, toward ensuring the perpetuation of the culture, the enhancement of lifestyle and the protection of entitlements of Native Hawaiians, while enabling the building of a strong and healthy Hawaiian people and nation, recognized nationally and internationally.” More here. In his Rice opinion, Justice Kennedy wrote:
When the culture and way of life of a people are all but engulfed by a history beyond their control, their sense of loss may extend down through generations; and their dismay may be shared by many members of the larger
Continue Reading Justice Kennedy’s Remarks About The “Hawaiian” Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference
When a Hawaii Supreme Court opinion starts off like this one, waxing poetic about “Na Wai Eha, or ‘the four great waters of Maui,'” you don’t need to read the remaining 88 pages to know what the inevitable result will be: the Water Commission got it wrong, again.
That’s the end result of the unanimous opinion in In re Iao Ground Water Management Area, No. SCAP 30603 (Aug. 15, 2012). Here’s the court’s own summary of its latest pronouncement on water law, including “interim instream flow standards,” customary and traditional Native Hawaiian practices, and more:
As explained below, the court holds that it has jurisdiction in the instant case, and takes this opportunity to expand upon the jurisdictional analysis from In re Water Use Permit Applications “Waiâhole I”, 94 Hawai’i 97, 9 P.3d 409, (2000). In reviewing Hui/MTF’s and OHA’s points of error, the court concludes that
Continue Reading HAWSCT’s Latest Water Law Decision: Water Commission Gets It Wrong (Yet Again)
Today’s American Banker has a story on the latest development in the let’s-use-eminent-domain-to-take-underwater-mortgages scheme: the Federal Housing Finance Agency has sent a strong shot across the bow of local governments contemplating such a move (e.g., San Bernadino, Chicago, even Berkeley):
Uh, don’t.
Full statement here, or below. The American Banker story is unfortunately behind a paywall, so we can’t bring it to you here, but we do have the highlights from a trio of Owners’ Counsel of America commentators who are quoted, us included:
“San Bernardino County cannot condemn federal property,” said Gideon Kanner, professor of law emeritus at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles and a longtime eminent domain expert. The FHFA is “a federal agency and the Feds can take the property of a state or city but the state or a local entity cannot take federal property.”
Robert Thomas, an attorney at the
Check this out, our latest law-related fun project.
Our firm is sponsoring (along with the Honolulu Museum of Art) a legal film series in September. We’re showing six legal films: Crime After Crime, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Castle (for that eminent domain connection, naturally), Counsellor at Law, and Anatomy of a Murder. Each film will be introduced by one of our colleagues, who will lead a discussion of the issues raised following the movies.
Find out more at the series’ web site www.lawinfilm.com with screening dates and times and all the details, including trailers and reviews. If you are in Honolulu on any of the screening dates, be sure to join us.Continue Reading “The First Thing We Do, Let’s Film All The Lawyers”
For those of you sticking around Chicago after the ABA Annual Meeting, there’s the opportunity for even more land use, zoning, takings, and condemnation programming. ALI-CLE (fka ALI-ABA) is putting on it’s annual Land Use Institute later this week. It looks like Planning Co-Chairs Gideon Kanner and Frank Schnidman have put together a wide-ranging agenda, and stellar faculty, as usual.
Details, including registration information, here.Continue Reading Chicago Part II: Land Use Institute
This past week was the ABA Annual Meeting in Chicago. These things can often be endurance contests where you’re rushing from one meeting to another (is this the Executive Committee meeting or the Council meeting?), and it’s often hard to tell the players without a scorecard.
Sprinkled among these unexciting-but-productive sessions are the real meat of the Annual Meeting, the CLE sessions. Some are interesting and fun (but pretty useless as CLE). Others are timely. Some are just plain weird. But never let it be said that the State and Local Government Law Section (the one that we are active in) doesn’t put on relevant programming: two of the featured CLE’s this past week were of particular interest to our readers, one about eminent domain, and the other about the takings case currently pending before the U.S. Supreme Court (which will be argued on October 3, 2012).
Continue Reading Summary Of Flood Takings CLE – Lawprofs And Lawyers Discuss Pending SCOTUS Case
