If you were looking for deep clarity from the Justices about land use law and whether a legislature imposing monetary conditions on property development always gets the free judicial pass of rational basis review in this morning’s oral arguments in Sheetz v. County of El Dorado, you may not discover a lot of predictive
January 2024
What We’re Reading Today, Property Rights Edition

Bismarck in January is looking pretty good.
Here’s what we’re reading today:
- Christian Britschgi, Court’s Wild Zoning Decision Blocks ‘Montana Miracle’, Reason (Jan. 2, 2024) (“In an eyebrow-raising decision, a Montana judge has halted the implementation of two laws legalizing duplexes and accessory dwelling units on residential land across the state, writing that they’d
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CA5: Government Should Not Send You On A Wild Goose Chase Though Its Own Procedures: “It was the regulatory equivalent of Romeo sending Mercutio on a wild goose chase—and then admitting there never was a goose while denying he even suggested the chase.”
What is a case about the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit’s en banc opinion on the FDA’s approval procedures for e-cigarettes, Wages and White Lion Invs, L.L.C. v. Food & Drug Admin., No. 21-60766 (Jan. 3, 2023), doing here?
We consider it worthy of your time and post it here…
New Article: “Keeping the Surplus? Examining Colorado’s Real Property Tax Lien System in Light of Tyler v. Hennepin County” (Makenna Johnson)
How thrilled are we that an alum of our William and Mary Law School courses, up-and-coming Colorado property lawyer Makenna X. Johnson, has published an article in the area of law we all love (dirt law)?
Let’s just say that we’re thrilled. Makenna writes:
Colorado’s real property tax system resembles Minnesota’s principally in…
Sheetz v. El Dorado County Argument Preview: Do Blanket Exactions Present The Same Risk As Ad Hoc Exactions?
Get ready for Sheetz v. El Dorado County, No. 22-1074, the “legislative exactions” case at the Supreme Court. [Disclosure: this is one of our firm’s cases, so we won’t be doing an analysis here. Besides, you already know where we stand on the issue.]
Takings Pilgrimage: Boomer v. Atlantic Cement Today
As you may remember, from time to time we’ve visited the sites of well-known dirt law cases. Kaiser Aetna, Loretto, Mahon, PruneYard, Chicago Burlington, the High Line, Dolan, Nollan, Seneca Village, and Hadacheck are the ones that readily come to mind.
Yes, we have a lot…
Hawaii SCT: Most Of Those Eminent Domain Issues (Esp. Severance Damages) Are For Juries
We’re not going to go into very much detail or provide commentary on the Hawaii Supreme Court’s unanimous 88-page opinion in an eminent domain case we’ve been following, City and County of Honolulu v. Victoria Ward, Ltd., No. SCAP-22-0000335 (Dec. 29, 2023), because before we departed private practice for public interest law…
Happy New Year: Say Goodbye To The Right To Exclude, Steamboat Willie
As of today, the copyright protection for the “Steamboat Willie” version of Mickey Mouse has lapsed, meaning it is in the public domain.
What can and can’t you do with this, as of January 1, 2024? As Duke lawprof Jennifer Jenkins writes as “Mickey, Disney, and the Public Domain: …





