This just in: the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to review a case from North Dakota (brought by our colleagues Derrick Braaten and the good folks at the Institute for Justice), asking whether attorneys fees are included in just compensation when a private pipeline takes property by eminent domain by using the federal power of eminent domain delegated in the Natural Gas Act.
Continue Reading We’re Going To Find Out Whether Attorneys Fees Are Part Of Just Compensation In Natural Gas Act Takings
Newly released: the Federalist Society’s “Courthouse Steps” series covers Pung v. Isabella County, where the U.S. Supreme Court held that “just compensation” for Tyler takings is usually measured by the surplus after a tax sale and not fair market value of the property, unless the tax sale process is unfair or skewed. Here’s
Here is what we’re reading today, comments and thoughts on yesterday’s U.S. Supreme Court decision in Pung v. Isabella County.
Continue Reading Pung Round-Up
This just in: the Supreme Court has decided Pung v. Isabella County, No. 25-95 (June 23, 2026). And the result — that “just compensation” for Tyler takings is usually measured by the surplus over the tax sale and not fair market value of the property, unless the tax sale process is unfair or skewed — isn’t the hoped-for outcome.
Continue Reading Pung Decided – “Just” Compensation May Not Always Mean Fair Market Value: “The Fifth Amendment protects the … right to surplus proceeds from the tax sale, not compensation for the property’s fair market value.”
Here’s the latest in a case we’ve been following for what seems like forever (and yes, it is one of ours, so we won’t be commenting). This morning the U.S. Supreme Court without comment denied the City of Marathon, Florida’s cert petition, which asked the Court to review an en banc opinion of the Florida District Court of Appeals which held that the City’s downzoning of Shands Key effected a Lucas taking as a deprivation of economically beneficial uses, notwithstanding that the property could be sold to a third party who could donate it to the city in return for some very watered-down transferable development rights (TDRs).
Continue Reading Good News: Lucas Cert Petition Denied – TDRs Go Only To Just Comp, Not Takings
Check out this recently-filed cert petition, which might be filed under government “keepings” as well as takings. In Greene v. Kansas Dep’t of Revenue, 576 P.3d 320 (Kan. Ct. App. 2025), the Kansas Court of Appeals held that the Department didn’t owe just compensation after it seized some of Greene’s property (the petition and the lower court’s opinion don’t really say what this property is, but we can presume it is some of the “potpourri substance named ‘Diablo’ that the Kansas Board of Pharmacy had deemed a controlled substance” that was at the heart of the tax dispute.
Continue Reading New Cert Petition: Temporarily Keeping Property Seized For Taxes After A Ruling The Taxes Were Not Owed Is A Taking
Here’s a recently-filed cert petition which asks this Question Presented: “Is the application of a prudential rule of exhaustion, where the only relief is voluntary cessation of government’s physical possession, a decision on the merits of an uncompensated Takings Clause claim?”
Continue Reading New Cert Petition: Remember First English?
Here’s the latest in a case we’ve been following (because it is one of ours). Our cert petition asks this Question Presented: “Does the protection the Takings Clause provides to land-use permit applicants encompass monetary demands beyond those imposed in lieu of a dedication of real property?” Five amici briefs have been filed, urging the Court to review the case.
Continue Reading Amici Briefs In Latest SCOTUS Exactions Petition: Nollan/Dolan Governs Exactions Of Money
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
Worth checking out. Although academics (and, presumably, those who pay for the privilege) have been able to access a limited catalog of historic records and briefs from the U.S. Supreme Court, thanks to the Wolf Library at William & Mary Law School, those same records are now generally available, for free.