July 2013

A coalition of law professors including property law scholars Richard Epstein, James Ely, and Ilya Somin, along with the Cato Institute have filed an amicus brief supporting the cert petition in Mariner’s Cove Townhomes Ass’n v. United States, No. 12-1453 (cert. petition filed June 12, 2013).

That’s the case in which the Fifth Circuit

This really was a “blockbuster” Term for the Supreme Court and takings law: no less than three cases (and four, maybe five, if you expand it slightly to include property-owner favorable cases such as Lozman and last term’s Sackett), and as Gideon Kanner noted recently, the CLE sessions are flying fast and furiously.

Here’s one not to miss, not only because it’s free, but because it features our PLF colleague Paul Beard II, arguing and prevailing counsel in Koontz v. St. Johns River Water Mgm’t Dist., No. 11-1447 (June 25, 2013): on Wednesday, July 17, 2013, from 2:00 – 3:30 pm ET, Greenberg Traurig and

Late last year, we posted the Complaint in a federal court lawsuit originating on Kauai. In that case, the owner of a property that has been designated for resort development for 35 years asserted that the adoption of a Charter amendment by the County’s voters and a follow-on ordinance adopted by the County Council that

On Wednesday, July 17, 2013, from 4:00 – 5:30 pm ET, I will be a panelist in the American Planning Association’s above-titled teleconference.  The session was put together by our ABA and OCA colleague Dwight Merriam, and in additon to Dwight and me, includes Professors David Callies (U. Hawaii) and Carol Brown (U.

Update: From the July 13 WaPo: As Wal-Mart threatens to walk, what’s next for a dying shopping center? (“The Skyland Shopping Center in Southeast Washington is amost dead. Shops are shuttered and windows broken.” Gee, we wonder why?). See also Gideon Kanner’s thoughts on the story at “Another Kelo Case in the Marking?

It’s easy to report when you win a case, not so easy when you … don’t (at least not yet).

That’s the result in this stage of the Hawaii reapportionment case, as yesterday, a three-judge U.S. District Court denied the plaintiffs’ motion for summary judgment and entered summary judgment for the state defendants. We

We’ve been offline for a few days, but wanted to pick up this decision in an important case we’ve been following about the valuation of protective dunes on the Jersey Shore, and general and special benefits.

In Borough of Harvey Cedars v. Karan, No. 070512 (July 8, 2013), the New Jersey Supreme Court held

Another date to save on your calendar: the 2014 Conference of the International Academic Association on Planning, Law, and Property Rights will be held from February 11-14, 2014 in Haifa, Israel, at Technion-Israel Institute of Technology. The Conference will include the usual presentations, plus day-long workshops, and excursions. You don’t need to be

Here’s one we’ve been meaning to post for a few days because it involves the nuts-and-bolts of eminent domain and inverse condemnation work — the calculation of just compensation and damages, and another victory for colleague Thor Hearne.

In a rails-to-trails taking case our of Florida, McCann Holdings, Ltd. v. United States, No.