August 2018

We think you should pay attention to the South Carolina Supreme Court’s opinion in South Carolina DOT v. Powell, No. 2016-000594 (Aug. 8, 2018). Indeed, it is a short opinion, and worth a read in its entirety. The reason why we think it is important is that it analyzes an issue that confuses many: the

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We usually don’t cover trial court orders, but this one is short, and, we think, worth your time reading. 

The issue before the North Dakota District Court (Ward County) was the award of attorneys’ fees following a successful necessity challenge by a landowner. In North Dakota, the award of fees and costs to

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A quick one from the Nevada Supreme Court (pictured above).

In Clark County v. HQ Metro, LLC, No. 71877 (Aug. 2, 2018), the unanimous court concluded that the owner of property at the time the condemnor obtained an order of possession (in Nevada, the term apparently is “order of occupation”) is the party entitled

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One of our last acts as Chair of the ABA’s Section of State and Local Government Law was to green light a CLE program at the recent Chicago annual meeting entitled “State Attorneys General and Federalism in the Obama and Trump Eras.”

The title kind of gives it away, but the main topic

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One of the problems with high-public-profile cases like the multiple challenges to the “Thirty Meter Telescope” up on the top of the Big Island’s Mauna Kea, is that when the court issues an opinion, the public focuses only on the result, mostly from a policy perspective. Who won? Did the court invalidate the TMT permits?

No surprises in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit’s opinion in Checker Cab Operators, Inc. v. Miami-Dade County, No. 17-11955 (Aug. 6, 2018). As the caption suggests, this is another one of those takings claims brought by “traditional” taxicab operators against a local government for its refusal to keep ridesharing services

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We already knew from its amicus brief brief that the federal government supported the property owner in Knick v. Township of Scott, No. 17-647, the case in which the US. Supreme Court agreed to review the continuing validity of the “state procedures” rule of Williamson County Regional Planning Comm’n v. Hamilton Bank, 473