42 U.S.C. § 1983 | Civil Rights

Today, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a unanimous opinion (by Chief Justice Roberts) in Filarksy v. Delia, No. 10-1018, holding that a private lawyer who was retained by a local government is entitled to assert qualified immunity. Along with my colleagues at the ABA Section of State and Local Government Law, I filed an…

Here’s the latest in the federal court reapportionment lawsuit, filed last week (we represent the plaintiffs). Above is the audio archive of my appearance yesterday morning on KHVH’s Rick Hamada Program. KITV also aired this report on the case. Posted below is the District Court order granting the request for a three-judge district court.

Order…

It may be Good Friday (an official State Holiday in Hawaii), but the federal courts are open, and today, on behalf of six plaintiffs including several veterans, we filed a lawsuit challenging under the Equal Protection Clause the State of Hawaii’s practice of excluding military personnel, their families, and university students who pay nonresident…

Today is Good Friday, an official holiday in the State of Hawaii, so we’re reposting our annual recounting of how it came to be that the State celebrates the date of the crucifixion. Turns out that it doesn’t really, it’s just coincidence that the “spring holiday” occurs on the same day. Or so says…

Here is the Reply Brief in Harmon v. Kimmel, No. 11-496 (filed Mar. 20, 2012), the case in which a Manhattan property owner is challenging New York’s rent control law as unconstitutional:

Respondents confuse the issues with their scattershot assertions that rent stabilization concerns merely “landlord tenant relations,” “economic regulation,” “price controls” and “economic…

Professor Richard Epstein, in his own inimitable and unequivocal style, opines on rent control and the Harmon cert petition in a Federalist Society podcast. A must-listen. Here’s the description:

In March 2011, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals issued summary judgment in Harmon v. Markus, a challenge to New York’s rent stabilization law…

We’ve been meaning to post this interesting and important case, but it got lost in the shuffle. Thanks to a colleague for the reminder. 

Try explaining that headline to anyone but a land use lawyer, and they would think you are a little bit crazy. What is so odd about a federal court actually exercising…

Here are the links to the cases and other items discussed today at the International Municipal Lawyers Association webinar with Dan Mandelker and Dwight Merriam. Most of these cases are also in your written materials.

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What we’re reading today:

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