One portion of the federal Uniform Relocation Act, 42 U.S.C. § 4651, requires Federal agencies participating in projects requiring the acquisition of private property to be guided by certain policies that “assure consistent treatment for owners . . . and . . . .promote public confidence in Federal land acquisition practices,” such as (and we’re paraphrasing
Does Hawaii Need An “Environmental Court?” (Part II)
Looks like they’re at it again, a solution in search of a problem: a bill has been proposed in the Hawaii Legislature to create an “Environmental Court,” whose mission would be to handle “environmental disputes” arising under a wide range of state statutes:
…administrative proceedings and proceedings for declaratory judgment on the validity of agency
How Do You Solve A Problem Like … Appellate Mootness? More Process!
The Hawaii Supreme Court has been on a roll lately, giving us a series of decisions clarifying appellate procedure. So in the past couple of months, we’ve got cases about appealability, dismissing appeals for a brief not conforming to the rules, and what is a final appealable order. Good stuff for those
9th Cir: Honolulu Rail Project On Track
Update 2/19/14: the Honolulu Star-Advertiser has this report (“The appellate court decision was an ‘overwhelming victory for the city from an ideologically diverse panel, said Robert Thomas, a Honolulu-and San Francisco-based attorney who attended the hearing in August. The panel comprised Judges Stephen Reinhardt, Mary Schroeder and Andrew Hurwitz. ‘All three of them agreed. They
Frack Now: NY Property Owners Sue To Halt Delays
Here’s the Verified Petition and Complaint, filed last week, in which a coalition of New York landowners sued the governor, claiming that the state is dragging its heels in its environmental review of fracking. We’re interested because a bad on fracking may lead to takings problems, although this lawsuit does not raise such
HAWSCT: Damage To Unique Property Subject To Unique Rules
There’s not much doubt that the now-notorious large-scale unpermitted upland grading and grubbing by a Kauai property owner on its private land caused the runoff that catastrophically damaged the adjacent beach and the reef offshore. The damage was pretty bad, and resulted in the “largest storm water settlement [with the federal EPA] in the United
Tuesday Round-Up: Hawaii In The Eminent Domain Spotlight
Looks like eminent domain and Hawaii are in the news today. Here’s what we’re reading:
- In “Scalia the Prophet?” Gideon Kanner comments about Justice Scalia’s recent appearance at one of our almas mater, the University of Hawaii law school. Scalia says that Kelo will eventually be overruled (“it will not survive”).
- Lawprof Ilya
The “Alternate Universe” Of Alabama Land Use
Reading the Alabama Supreme Court’s decision in City of Alabaster v. Shelby Land Partners, LLC, No.1120677 (Jan. 24, 2014), we are reminded of that episode of Star Trek where the gang accidentally ends up in a parallel universe, where things are all backwards. That’s the episode that probably started the meme that in order
Three Cheers For Our ABA Program On “Coercive Paternalism” And The Nanny State
Here are the links from today’s session on “They’ll Take My Big Gulp From My Cold Dead Hands – Public Health, the Police Power, and the Nanny State” at the ABA Midyear meeting in Chicago.
Joining me was Sarah Conly, Professor of Philosophy at Bowdoin College, author of “Against Autonomy: Justifying Coercive
Things To Read In Chicago When You’re Freezing
We’re at the ABA Midyear meeting in sunny Chicago, so we have our to-read links posted today instead of a new case digest. Our fingers are too frozen to post anything more:
- Kelo Revisited: Properties were seized and a neighborhood razed in the name of ‘economic development’ that never came (from the Weekly Standard).
- Lawprof