2013. August 28. 2:00 p.m. I was working the day watch patrol on the Belt Highway. I observed a green flatbed pickup truck driving towards Hilo with a load of open containers loaded with a green leafy substance. I suspected this could either be cabbage or lettuce. I pursued to investigate. Approximately a half a
Someone up in Asheville must’ve really ticked off someone else down at the North Carolina legislature. Because for some reason, the state adopted a statute which, just like that, transferred the city-owned water system to a newly-created county sewer and water district. The statute didn’t change the water system’s operation — and this was key in
The Honolulu Star-Advertiser today ran a story by Timothy Hurley about a new bill adopted by the Hawaii legislature which puts certain cases on the appellate fast-track, “New law could speed process for Thirty Meter Telescope.”
The bill mandates that in certain cases, any administrative appeals skip the usual first two steps (circuit court
We thought there was a chance in a case out of San Jose, California, that the U.S. Supreme Court might take up the long-standing issue of whether legislatively-imposed exactions meet the nexus and proportionality unconstitutional conditions tests from Nollan, Dolan, and Koontz. Do those tests require an individualized determination, or is
In this order, the Hawaii Supreme Court agreed to review (“accepted certiorari” in the local appellate lingo) the Intermediate Court of Appeals’ opinion in Green Party of Hawaii v. Nago, No. CAAP-14-0001313 (Dec. 18, 2015). That decision answered in part the often elusive question of “what is an agency ‘rule’ that triggers the rulemaking
Here’s a cert petition recently filed, which asks the U.S. Supreme Court to review the opinion of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court under a judicial takings theory.
The petitioners argue that the Maine court took their private property when it departed from its prior decisions and a statute and concluded that a road to
Earlier today, we asked the Federal Circuit for its permission to file this amici brief urging the court to rehear its recent panel decision in Romanoff Equities, Inc. v. United States, No. 15-5034 (Fed. Cir. Mar. 10, 2016).
This is a rails-to-trails takings case in which the panel concluded that the words in the
California Associate Justice Goodwin Liu — often mentioned on short lists of potential future nominees to the U.S. Supreme Court even after the Republican-led Senate stymied his nomination by President Obama to the Ninth Circuit — just saw his chances for a promotion go up today, if ever so slightly. No, we’re not talking about
The Supreme Court has declined to review the Second Circuit’s summary order upholding the dismissal of a federal court regulatory takings claim on Williamson County ripeness grounds.
In this order, the Court denied cert, over the dissent of Justice Thomas (joined by Justice Kennedy). We’ve said here many times why Williamson County is a
“Election contests” in Hawaii are pretty narrow cases, and are subject to strict rules regarding subject matter jurisdiction (the Hawaii Supreme Court has original jurisdiction), content, timing,and remedy. For more, see our earlier post “HAWSCT Confirms Election Contests Are Tough!” Thus, even when an election challenge may have merit, the road is an uphill
