The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit doesn’t handle too many takings, eminent domain, or property rights related cases. But after today’s announcement that the Chief Judge of the Circuit was nominated for the vacant spot on the U.S. Supreme Court, we did a search through the legal databases anyhow, just in case we missed any.
The search came up empty, with nothing of interest to report decided by the nominee in those areas, or in the land use or due process context. So we can’t really make a solid, supported-by-his-prior-decisions prediction on how he’d rule on those issues if he is confirmed. But really, we kind of know, don’t we?
Maybe as others have written, he’s the best we can expect.
Our guess is that he’s a stalking horse, and that the real goal is Nominee #2, a much younger, much less “centrist” pick.
We are living in an interesting age.