Our colleague and co-planning chair Joe Waldo was in town yesterday, so we walked through historic Williamsburg, Virginia (cradle of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights), to invite you to join us for the 36th Annual ALI-CLE Eminent Domain & Land Valuation Litigation Conference (January 24-26, 2019, in Palm Springs, California).
4th Cir Judge In Pipeline Arguments: “Condemnation is one of those monarchy things” – Is Immediate Possession Unconstitutional When Congress Has Not Delegated That Power To A Pipeline?
Here’s the latest in an issue we’ve been following closely. In the Natural Gas Act, Congress has not delegated to private pipeline companies the quick-take power. To get around that, to get immediate possession of properties which they are taking, pipeline companies use a procedural mechanism — a preliminary injunction under Fed. R. Civ. P.
New Cert Petition (MR-GO Katrina Case): Can Government *Inaction* Lead To A Taking?
Here’s the cert petition we’ve been waiting to drop in a case we’ve been following closely.
Last we checked in, the Federal Circuit (any guess on which judge?) held that the catastropic Katrina flooding — caused mostly by the federal government’s construction and maintenance of a navigation project, the Mississippi River Gulf-Outlet
Iowa Supreme Court Oral Argument Video: Does A Finding Of Public Necessity And Convenience For A Pipeline Also Solve The Question Of Public Use In Eminent Domain?
Here’s the video of the oral arguments held earlier today in the Iowa Supreme Court in a high-profile pipeline case. In Puntenney v. Iowa Utilities Board, the court is considering a case at the intersection of the law of public utilities, and condemnation law. The basic question the court is trying to solve is
New Cert Petition: Is Holding Land With No Present Use In The Hope The Government Allows Some Use In The Future An “Economically Beneficial Use” Of Property?
Here’s the cert petition, filed yesterday, in a case we’ve been following closely. Here’s our short summary of the case, written up when it was ready for argument in the Hawaii Supreme Court. That court’s ruling against the property owner added to the the lower court split on the issue of whether
Your Kelo Moments From The Kavanaugh Hearings
Before last week’s Judiciary Committee hearings on the nomination of Brent Kavanaugh to be an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, we wrote that the issue of property rights and eminent domain may come up during the hearing, even though Judge Kavanaugh’s actual judicial record on that topic is pretty thin.
We were busy during
Kavanaugh On Kelo?
In case you were on Mars yesterday, you are aware that putative frat boy Brett Kavanaugh is up for a seat at the most exclusive club in law land, Alpha Alpha Alpha, otherwise known as the U.S. Supreme Court.
We said pretty much all we’re going to say about what Judge Kavanaugh becoming Justice Kavanaugh
Monkey Selfies And Takings Ripeness
A quick one today because we’re offline (more on that later). Pacific Legal Foundation (the folks who are representing the property owner in the pending case challenging the continuing viability of the Williamson County ripeness doctrine), has posted this entry on their blog, “This monkey got his day in court. Property owners still
Fla App: Takings Dog Still Doesn’t Hunt
Back in April, we posted the Florida District Court of Appeal’s opinion in a case where landowners sued the state fish and wildlife commission because “deer dog hunters and their dogs” who had hunting licenses trespassed on the plaintiffs’ lands. The court, over a single judge dissent, affirmed the dismissal of the takings claims, because
Litigation As A Substitute For Legislation? Coverage Of Our ABA Section’s Federalism CLE
One of our last acts as Chair of the ABA’s Section of State and Local Government Law was to green light a CLE program at the recent Chicago annual meeting entitled “State Attorneys General and Federalism in the Obama and Trump Eras.”
The title kind of gives it away, but the main topic