Check out a newly-published law review article by lawprof Timothy Harris, “The Contracts Clause Can be Enforced via Section 1983, Period: The Nonexistent Circuit Court ‘Split’,” 78 SMU L. Rev. Forum 106 (2025).
The article delves into the issue of whether 42 U.S.C. § 1983 is the cause of action to bring
There’s not a lot of new territory forged in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit’s opinion in Pena v. City of Los Angeles, No. 24-2422 (Nov. 4, 2025), holding that the city could not be liable for a taking after SWAT officers severely damaged a home in the course of
In Witherspoon v. Ince, No. 24-6194 (Oct. 9, 2025), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit held that a property owner who alleged that Oklahoma’s system of private takings — where the state authorizes private parties to use eminent domain to take what looks like an easement by necessity over a neighbor’s
A short one (unpublished) from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in a Tyler taking case (an issue that seems like it is on a lot of courts’ minds right now).
In Wayside Church v. Van Buren County, No. 24-1598 (Oct. 6, 2025), the court affirmed the district court’s certification of
Here’s the cert petition which we filed recently. We won’t be saying much about this one because it is one of ours.
But here’s the Question Presented, which pretty much says it all:
The City of Lathrup Village, Michigan, prohibits leasing commercial property without a license. But the City will not issue a license unless
Here’s a recent cert petition which asks the Supreme Court to take up the case of a small property owner in West Hollywood, California, whose case was dismissed when he asked “[h]ow far can a city expand rent control to advance general socioeconomic policies before crossing constitutional property protections?” Pet. at 3.
Here are the
It appears that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit has addressed the issue the U.S. Supreme Court sidestepped recently in DeVillier v. Texas, 601 U.S. 285 (2024): do you need Congress’s ok to sue for just compensation for a taking?
In Fulton v. Fulton County Bd of Commissioners, No. 22012041
“The Irrigation District will disavow any knowledge of your actions…”
In Hamann v. Heart Mountain Irrigation District, No. S-24-0234 (July 11, 2025), the Wyoming Supreme Court unanimously held that a state agency cannot avoid its obligation to provide just compensation when its employee causes a taking or damaging of private property, merely because the
A short one from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
In Wenzel v. Federspiel, No. 24-1278 (June 20, 2025), the Sheriff was accused of keeping “fourteen firearms seized in a criminal investigation that ended years ago.” Slip op. at 1. Eventually, the claimed owners of those guns sued, inter alia
810 years ago today* on a grassy plain down by the river, the barons convinced bad King John to affix his seal to Magna Carta. Or the Magna Carta. Or Magna Charta. However you want to grammarize it. (And no, he didn’t “sign” it, they didn’t do things like that back then.)
And