As the caption of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit’s opinion in People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, Inc. v. Reynolds, No. 25-1750 (Apr. 23, 2026), might indicate, this is a case about animal-rights activists coming onto property to video the goings-on.
Iowa had already criminalized certain trespasses: entering or
Yesterday’s U.S. Supreme Court’s 8-1 decision in Havana Docks Corp. v. Royal Carribean Cruises, Ltd., No. 24-983 (May 22, 2026) involves a taking without compensation (although not the type of taking we usually discuss here) by the then-new communist government of Cuba. But it does give us some insight to how the Court views property. In this case, the term “property” as defined in a federal statute creating a private right of action against someone who traffics in property seized by the Cuban communist government after the 1959 revolution.
Continue Reading Usufruct That! Some Clues On How SCOTUS Views Property As “Physical Things” And Not Just Sticks Or Interests
Yesterday (yes, April Fool’s Day), we returned to William and Mary Law School to help the student-run Real Estate Law Society wrap up its event year. The putative title of our talk was “Hot Topics in Property Law”, but we covered a wider range, including Dirt Law issues to be on the lookout for at the Supreme Court, a century of zoning, career paths in property law (litigation, transactional, academic, for example, and what the hiring market looks like), and some general musings.
Continue Reading William & Mary Law School’s Real Estate Law Society
Check out this cert petition filed yesterday. It’s from our shop, so we’re not going to be commenting much. The issue is one that the Supreme Court has expressed an interest in, but the last time it was before the Court a few years ago, the Justices decided to wait for the next case. Well, here’s the next case.
Continue Reading New Cert Petition: Do Indian Tribes Have Greater Sovereign Immunity Than Other Governments?
We’re spending the day at the alma mater, talking alongside some of the luminaries in the field (lawprofs Thomas Mitchell, Henry Smith, John Inafranca, Thomas Merrill, and Pamela Sameulson, among others) about our favorite topics: dirt law and property rights. This is the “Future of Property Rights” Conference that we mentioned not long ago at the University of Hawaii Law School.
Continue Reading 2026 Future of Property Law Conference, University of Hawaii Law School
What do they call those phrases that are internally contradictory like “jumbo shrimp” and similar? Here’s an awfully good Dirt Law version (think about that on your next working vacation).
Continue Reading How’s That Again?
Check it out, an in-progress piece from lawprof Molly Brady, “Property v. Guns: The Level-of-Generality Problem in Wolford.”
This delves into the issue we posted about last week, the Second Amendment and the right to exclude, an issue argued recently before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Continue Reading New Article (Lawprof Molly Brady): “Property v. Guns: The Level-of-Generality Problem in Wolford”
Too busy writing those briefs and petitioning for those writs, so haven’t found the time to hit your local store or the interwebs and fulfill your seasonal duties? Or maybe you just have gifter’s block this holiday season about an appropriate present for the dirt lawyer in your life?
You want to be known as
Tomorrow, November 22, 2025 is the 99th anniversary of the day in 1926 when the United States Supreme Court issued its landmark opinion in Village of Euclid v. Ambler Realty Co., 272 U.S. 365 (Nov. 22, 1926).
You know this one (and can you call yourself a dirt lawyer if you don’t?).
As we wrap up another year, it’s time to look ahead to the one event that always gets our eminent domain blood pumping: the annual ALI-CLE Eminent Domain and Land Valuation Litigation Conference. Details, including faculty list, a complete agenda, and registration information is posted here.
Now in its 43rd year, this flagship gathering