42 U.S.C. § 1983 | Civil Rights

One does not simply walk to nashville

You can also fly, drive, or bike to the upcoming 37th Annual ALI-CLE Eminent Domain & Land Valuation Litigation Conference. in Nashville. Limited space still available, so don’t delay further and register now. We’re on track to record attendance, so you don’t want to miss the best nationally-focused three-day program on our area of

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We’re seeing a lot of “end of year” and “end of decade” wrap-ups, so figured we’d better chime in.

As the above graphic hints (this is detail of the doors of the U.S. Supreme Court), our biggest case of 2019 (and probably of the twenty-aughts) is Knick v. Township of Scott

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If you get this, you need to attend the 37th Annual ALI-CLE Eminent Domain & Land Valuation Litigation Conference, January 23-25, 2020, in Nashville.

And if you don’t get this, you need to attend more. 

Register here

Untitled Extract Pages

Here’s the Complaint filed earlier this month in an Indiana federal court, which alleges that the State of Indiana is liable for a judicial taking in a case we’ve been following. Yes, a judicial taking! 

You recall that in Gunderson v. Indiana, 90 N.E.3d 171 (Ind. 2018), the Indiana Supreme Court concluded that the

Here’s the cert petition, filed today (by the same folks who brought you Knick v. Township of Scott, 139 S. Ct. 393 (1922)), which poses this straightforward question:

Whether the “self-executing” Just Compensation Clause abrogates a State’s Eleventh Amendment immunity, allowing a property owner to sue the State for a taking of property.

We were not as creative as our colleague Paul Henry (see below), but our Planning Co-Chair Joe Waldo and I wanted to personally invite you to join the “big guns” in our area of law at the 37th Annual ALI-CLE Eminent Domain and Land Valuation Litigation Conference, January 23-25, 2020, in Nashville, Tennessee.

We’ve

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Here’s the latest in a case we’ve been following for a while, Smyth v. Conservation Comm’n of Falmouth, No. 19-223 (cert. petition filed Aug. 16, 2019). 

The petition seeks review of a Massachusetts decision which held that a judge, not a jury, determines Penn Central takings questions, and also that the owner lost anyhow

Check this out. The Complaint that we’ve been meaning to post for a while, filed last month in a Los Angeles U.S. District Court, alleging that California’s new rent control laws are a taking, among other things.

Are rent control laws takings? Yes, pretty sure about that. But will courts conclude that they are takings?

Registration underway, so come join us! Agenda full of hot topics in takings and appraisal law! The best national faculty! Renew friendships, and make new colleagues! And Nashville! 

Download the brochure and make your plans for January. (Don’t wait, we’ve sold out the past three years.)

EXHIBIT A

We’re back again at that supposed distinction between the police power and the eminent domain power, which reminds us of that old tale about President Lyndon Johnson:

After reviewing a contingent of Viet Nam-bound Marines in California, Lyndon Johnson strode purposefully toward what he thought was his helicopter. “That’s your helicopter over there, sir,”