February 2018

Rogerspointmaine

In Bayberry Cove Children’s Land Trust v. Town of Steuben, No. Was-17-258 (Feb. 27, 2018), the Maine Supreme Judicial Court considered whether the Town’s exercise of eminent domain to take an interest to a road the public had apparently been using for decades (if not centuries) was for public use.

A 2013 survey, however

Here’s the cert petition, recently filed in a case we’ve been following from South Dakota

The statute at issue — the federal Uniform Relocation Assistance and Real Property Acquisition Act — isn’t one that gets a lot of attention, particularly at the Supreme Court. But it’s an area that is ripe for review. The

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Mark your calendars, plan to come: Detroit, April 19-20, 2018. For what is perhaps the best deal in CLE (tuition as low as $400), the 32d Annual Land Use Institute, sponsored by our section of the ABA, the Section of State and Local Government Law.

The venue is the

Here’s one from the Hawaii Intermediate Court of Appeals, Cervelli v. Bufford, No. CAAP-13-896 (Feb. 23, 2018), in which the court considered whether homeowners who rented out rooms in their home to the public, but refused to do so to a lesbian couple, violated Hawaii’s public accommodation laws, or were sheltered from the statute

Here’s the latest in a case we’ve been following since its inception, Brott v. United States, the case which asks the deceptively simple question of whether property owners who sue the federal government for a taking are entitled to both an Article III forum, and to have the issues determined by a jury.

Here’s the cert petition, recently filed in a case we’ve been following as it has made its way from the Court of Federal Claims and through the Federal Circuit.

The underlying matter was litigated in the District Court and the Fifth Circuit. Those courts concluded that the plaintiff did not own mineral leases

Here’s the cert petition, filed today by SCOTUS superstar Paul Clement in a case we’ve been following out of Northern California.

Here are the Questions Presented:

This case involves a stretch of private property along the California coast known as Martins Beach. The California Coastal Commission and the County of San Mateo want Martins

At the recent ALI-CLE Eminent Domain and Land Valuation Litigation Conference in Charleston, South Carolina, we held an after-hours preview of the upcoming feature film about the Kelo case, “Little Pink House.” (Based on Jeff Benedict’s book, which we reviewed here.)

The filmmakers graciously allowed us to preview it at the

Here’s the latest in a case we’ve been following out of Louisiana, involving a local Port’s power to seize a Mississippi River docking facility downriver from New Orleans. The Port took the entire VDP facility, made no change in how the property was used, and eventually turned over operation of the facility to

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Mr. Song’s tale is harrowing: His property targeted for redevelopment. Offered compensation, but he believed that local regulations required payment of at least 45% more. When he attempted to negotiate, local officials said no deal. So he organized a protest at which he and his neighbors held signs that said things like “opposed to forced demolition.&rdquo