Environmental law

Yesterday, we posted our thoughts on a recent article in Hawaii Business magazine about land use, environmental law, and the Hawaii Supreme Court.

In “‘Let ‘Em Eat Cake’ Comes to Hawaii, Professor Gideon Kanner has added his thought on the article. He comments on the article’s conclusion that “[i]f we don’t like the [environmental] laws anymore, we can elect officials to change them.” by writing:

Hawaii Business magazine have never heard about the principle that statutes have to be constitutional? Would they make the same argument in the case of overreaching criminal laws? Racial segregation laws? Laws impairing the exercise of the First Amendment?

…

Moreover, under the “reasoning” of these idiots, no law need be constitutional because if the legislature disregards a provision of the Bill of Rights, we can tell the complaining citizens to be better electors next time and to elect more constitutionally sensitive representatives.

Lord in heaven! Is there no limit to these guys’ stupidity? Evidently not.

Read his entire commentary here. By the way, before you are tempted to dismiss Professor Kanner as an outlander (yes, Justice Scalia really did call out-of-staters “outlanders” in a recent oral argument), his ties to Hawaii and his knowledge of our ways go way, way back.
Continue Reading Strong Letter To Follow…

In “Why big development is so difficult in Hawaii,” Hawaii Business magazine tackles an issue first raised by U. Hawaii lawprof David Callies in recently-published law review article (and follow-up interview), where he labeled the record of the 1993-2010 Hawaii Supreme Court on property issues “appalling” (80% overall success rate for environmental…

Here’s the amicus brief of the Coalition of Arizona/New Mexico Counties for Stable Economic Growth, supporting the petitioner City of Tombstone in City of Tombstone v. United States, No. 12-1069 (cert. petition filed Feb. 27, 2013). [Disclosure:we also filed an amici brief in the case in support of Tombstone.]

The case arose after the…

As you know, the U.S. Supreme Court earlier reversed the Federal Circuit’s conclusion that government-induced flooding could not be a taking unless it was “permanent,” and remanded the case to the Federal Circuit for more.

Although the Federal Circuit indicated it would have preferred to avoid trying to deal with the issue (its order establishing…

Today, on behalf of the Cato Institute and a coalition of Western-state public policy and research foundations, we filed this amicus brief in supporting the City of Tombstone‘s cert petition in City of Tombstone v. United States, No. 12-1069 (cert. petition filed Feb. 27, 2013).

In that case, in 2011 a forest fire…

If this article — Christie tells beachfront owners to sign easement for dunes or face ridicule — accurately relays the entire context of the situation, then something is seriously off here.

The article quotes New Jersey Governor Chris Christie as declaring that if shoreline property owners do not voluntarily surrender easements and allow the construction…

Undercutting the trope that the lawsuit by a Marin County, California oyster farm to keep operating is all a right-wing plot (see also this story), famed Berkeley chef and food guru Alice Waters has asked the Ninth Circuit to file an amicus brief in support of Drakes Bay Oyster Company in its appeal of…

Here’s more about the Federal Circuit’s decision in Lost Tree Village, a case we covered here: US Army Corps Denies A § 404 Permit: Can A Takings Claim Be Based OnConsideration Of The Economic Affect On the Wetlands Parcel Only? from Abbott & Kindermann’s Land Use Blog.

Update: we removed the embedded video that was posted above, since CBS kept replacing it with other clips. Here’s a direct link to the video.

As our readers know, we follow with keen interest events in the People’s Republic of China (does anyone call it that, anymore?), especially those issues related to property and…

The other shoe has dropped, and in “Environmental Lawyers Off Target With Criticism Of Callies,” U. Hawaii lawprof David Callies responds to and rebuts an earlier op-ed by the Director of the Sierra Club and an Earthjustice lawyer which criticized Professor Callies’ recently-published law review article (and follow-up interview) detailing the stunning…