In Betts v Boone County, No. 25-1685 (June 15, 2026), the big question facing the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit was whether qualified immunity kept next-of-kin from prevailing on a section 1983 due process claim after the county coroner kept the skull of a murder victim as a “trophy” for forty years (yikes!) after turning over the rest of the body to the family for burial.
Continue Reading CA7: Illinois Recognizes Due Process Property In Kin’s Remains
Property rights and dirt law really float your boat? Want to be colleagues with the lawyers who won landmark property rights cases like Knick, Sheetz, Pakdel, Nollan, Cedar Point, Tyler, Shear, and others? See yourself as a guardian of the “guardian of every other right?” Well, here’s a rare chance to join our firm’s Property Rights group.
Continue Reading Want To Be A Guardian Of “The Guardian Of Every Other Right”? Now’s The Time To Join PLF’s Property Rights Courtroom Lawyers
A bit of self-promotion this Friday. Our shop put out a short video (above) and print ad (below) to capture the vibe of why owners may object when their property is threatened by eminent domain, especially when that property is their home.
Takings and property rights mavens: how many times have you heard a
Worth reading: a new (student-authored) piece, Michaela R. Hill, Not Just a Castle in the Sky: A Legal Remedy for Race-Based Takings in Virginia, 67 Wm. & Mary L. Rev. 1497 (2026). Here’s the summary: “This Note argues that Virginia….”
Continue Reading New Note: Michaela R. Hill, “Not Just a Castle in the Sky: A Legal Remedy for Race-Based Takings in Virginia, 67 William & Mary L. Rev. 1497 (2026)
Programming note: On the weekend we’ve set aside to remember our nation’s war dead, we thought we’d repost this one, about how Arlington National Cemetery came to be. And yes, there’s a takings story there.
Continue Reading Memorial Day 2026: Arlington National Cemetery And Takings
Here’s the latest in our continuing series of dirt law pilgrimages, where we visit the site of some of the more important cases in our favorite area of law. As every dirt lawyer knows, you can see photos, read descriptions, and study plat maps. But when it comes to understanding about the property at issue, nothing substitutes for getting your shoes in the dirt on-site, seeing the area for yourself, smelling the air. Walking the earth.
Continue Reading Property Pilgrimage: Nectow v. City of Cambridge (1928)
Be sure to check out this student note which criticizes the Second Circuit’s approach to pretextual takings in Brinkmann v. Town of Southold, 96 F.4th 209 (2d Cir. 2024), and offers a different way to analyze cases in which the government’s stated public use doesn’t appear to be its actual use or purpose for exercising eminent domain.
Continue Reading New Must-Read Article: Anna Fein, Pants on Fire: How the Brinkmann Majority Forgot About the Takings Clause in a Takings Clause Case, 99 S. Cal. L. Rev. 405 (2025)
Here’s the latest (a development we predicted) in a case we’ve been following. In this Order, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit confirmed that it will be rehearing the Fulton case en banc. As you recall, last year a 2-1 panel of the court held that an owner whose property has been taken does not need Congress to have created a cause of action, and may directly sue for just compensation under the constitution. That’s right, the “self-executing just compensation” issue that the Supreme Court dodged in DeVillier.
Continue Reading En Banc CA11 To Consider Self-Executing Just Compensation
Hawaii has a unique status among American states. It is the only state that once was a separate sovereign nation, the Kingdom of Hawaii and then its short-lived successor, the Republic of Hawaii. Yes, we know that Texas may lay claim to the whole six-flags thing, so maybe the more accurate statement would be that Hawaii is the only state that was a sovereign kingdom, ruled by royalty.
Continue Reading If A King Must Comply With “Every Form And Particular” In Eminent Domain, Then Today’s Condemnors Also Surely Must
In an historic win for property owners in California, in Shear Dev. Co., LLC v. California Coastal Comm’n, No. S2284378 (Apr. 23, 2026), the unanimous California Supreme Court held that the Coastal Commission–which we can say without exaggeration is the most unaccountable and out-of-control agency in the nation–overstepped its authority when it purported to override a municipal government’s approval of a building permit. [Barista’s note: our firm represents the prevailing property owner in the case, and the head of our Coastal Property Rights group, Jeremy Talcott is lead counsel.]
Continue Reading California Supreme Court Reins In The Most Unaccountable Agency In The Nation, The California Coastal Commission