2018

Here’s a bit passed on to us from a colleague who reads USA Today. Leading off “Justice Gorsuch confirms conservatives’ hopes, liberals’ fears in first year on Supreme Court,” is this snippet, which points out a Just Compensation case in which we represented the (denied) petitioner:

WASHINGTON – Neil Gorsuch had been a member of the Supreme Court for exactly 11 weeks when he made clear in a single day what type of justice he would be.

The court struck down an Arkansas law that treated same-sex couples differently than opposite-sex couples on their children’s birth certificates. Gorsuch dissented. 

The court refused to consider a challenge to the Department of Veterans Affairs’ system for evaluating disability claims. Gorsuch dissented.

The court declined to hear a challenge to a California law limiting who can carry a concealed gun in public. Gorsuch dissented.

And the court turned aside a challenge to the meager sum Mississippi paid when it converted a former landowner’s property into a park. Gorsuch said the justices should hear a similar case “at its next opportunity.”

Thus it was that on the last day of its 2016-17 term — as the court addressed gay rights, government power, gun ownership and government takings — Neil McGill Gorsuch announced to the legal world that he would not go along to get along.

“He came to the court more ready to jump into the deep end than a lot of recent nominees,” says Jonathan Adler, a law professor at Case Western Reserve University School of Law.

Here’s why

we thought the denial of cert in that case (and others) wasn’t necessarily a bad sign.
Continue Reading USA Today Notes Just Comp An Area Where Justice Gorsuch “Jumping Into The Deep End”

Sterk_475

The William and Mary Law School has announced the recipient of the 2018 Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Prize, Cardozo School of Law Professor Stewart E. Sterk.

He will receive the prize at the 15th Annual B-K Conference in Williamsburg, October 4-5, 2018

Sterk’s publications span a wide variety of areas, ranging from property

When the city condemned a portion of CED’s property back in 2012 for a highway project (replacing an intersection with a roundabout), the city’s appraiser testified that the taking did not confer any “special benefits” to CED’s remainder parcel. Eventually, CED and the city settled the case and the city paid agreed-upon compensation and severance

Space is filling up, but there’s still time to join us later this month in Detroit for the 32nd Annual Land Use Institute (April-19-20). 

We’ll let program Planning Chair Frank Schnidman explain all the reasons why, and we’ll add only these points: (1) it’s a very good program that won’t take much of your time

We don’t usually post up trial court rulings, preferring to wait until the issue percolates up through the food chain. But this one is an exception, because, well, it’s darned interesting, and we wanted to get you all on board on the ground floor.

Here’s the trial court’s order granting the plaintiffs/property owners summary judgment

Here’s the cert petition in a case we’ve been following out of the Tenth Circuit involving an attempt by a private utility company to take property which is now partly tribal land.

In Public Service Co. of New Mexico v. Barboan, 857 F.3d 1101 (10th Cir. 2017), there wasn’t a question that a federal

Here’s what we’re reading this Thursday:

Cert(s) Denied

  • Brott v. United States, No. 17-712. This one was disappointing, but, I suppose, not surprising given that it would have upset current practice, no matter how unconstitutional that practice is. This is the case which challenged the takings-claims-against-the-feds-over-$10k-must-go-to-the-CFC-with-no-jury scheme. We did a brief in support

Verdictform

As we reported here, the U.S. District Court for the District of Hawaii just finished a jury trial in a regulatory takings case (removed by the defendant State of Hawaii from Hawaii courts) involving a stalled development on the Big Island.

The jury has returned a verdict after 8 days of trial, concluding the