Our state courts may be closed on this Good Friday, but the courts of most other states’ are not, Texas courts included. So here’s an opinion issued today by the Texas Supreme Court, El Dorado Land Co. v. City of McKinney, No. 11-0834 (Mar. 29, 2013).
[Update: more on the case here…
Our colleague Mark M. Murakami has published the first in a series of posts on his blog about legal issues surrounding the multi-billion dollar Honolulu rail project, “Honolulu Rail and the Uniform Relocation Act.”
Because the HART rail project will involve federal funds, federal laws and regulations provide property owners (and their tenants)…
Before the title of this post causes you to flee, please bear with us.
Oral arguments have just concluded in the Hawaii Intermediate Court of Appeals in a fascinating case involving the nature of “Torrens” title and, in a broader sense, the nature of property rights themselves. Disclosure: we filed an amicus brief in the…
If this article — Christie tells beachfront owners to sign easement for dunes or face ridicule — accurately relays the entire context of the situation, then something is seriously off here.
The article quotes New Jersey Governor Chris Christie as declaring that if shoreline property owners do not voluntarily surrender easements and allow the construction…
If that headline calls out to you, congratuations: you are officially a takings nerd.
In Brandt v. United States, No. 12-5050 (Mar. 26, 2013), the Federal Circuit held that a takings claim originally submitted as a compulsory counterclaim to the federal government’s attempt to quiet title in a District Court action — which was…
No, the title to this post is not based on a character from a future Harry Potter book, but a wonderful phrase borrowed from German into the world of chess. “Zugzwang,” for those of you who are neither German-speakers nor chess players, describes a situation in which a player is in a good…
When a court of appeals opinion holding that the federal government has retained a reversionary interest in railroad rights-of-way contains the following language, that sound you hear is the cracking of smiles on appellate lawyers’ faces:
Though we recognize that the Seventh Circuit, the Federal Circuit and the Court of Federal Claims have concluded that…
Here’s the Reply Brief in Ilagan v. Ungacta, No. 12-723 (cert. petition filed Dec. 7, 2012), the case in which the Court is considering whether to review the Guam Supreme Court’s opinion applying Kelo v. City of New London, 545 U.S. 469 (2005) to reverse a trial court decision invalidating a taking.
The…
Here’s the transcript from today’s Supreme Court oral arguments in Horne v. United States Dep’t of Agriculture, No. 12-123 (cert. granted Nov. 20, 2012).
Here’s a recap of the arguments from Lyle Dennison at SCOTUSblog: “If only it were simple…“
Here’s the Reply Brief in Horne v. United States Dep’t of Agriculture, No. 12-123 (cert. granted Nov. 20, 2012), the case asking whether in an enforcement action by the USDA, California raisin farmers can raise the defense that the requirement they turn over to the government a certain percentage of their yearly crop would…
