Municipal & Local Govt law

Taking_coverimage_webIf you are anywhere within striking distance of Touro Law School (Central Islip, Long Island), you should make plans to attend a conference that promises two days of fantastic programming on October 3 and 4, 2013.

The Taking Issue – 40th Anniversary Symposium” is dedicated to the memory of the legendary Professor Fred

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, in Temple B’Nai Zion, Inc v. City of Sunny Isles, No. 12-12094 (Aug. 29, 2013), held that the Williamson County ripeness doctrine did not prevent the Temple from bringing its RLUIPA (and related) claims in federal court. 

The right result for sure. But wait, you

According to this story in the San Francisco Chronicle, “Eminent domain plan may have spooked investors,” Richmond, California’s plan to take underwater mortgages by eminent domain “Wall Street spurned its efforts to refinance its highly rated municipal bonds [A-minus rating], an unusual snub that cost the city nearly $4 million in lost

Just over a month ago, the U.S Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit held that a federal takings case could actually proceed in federal court. Well yesterday, the same court issued a similar opinion in a related case, Town of Nags Head v. Toloczko, No. 12-1537 (Aug. 27, 2013).

We won’t go

Word comes that the California Supreme Court has denied review of the Court of Appeal decision in Lockaway Storage v. County of Alameda, No. A30874 (1st Dist. May 9, 2013). The court also rejected a request to “depublish” the First District’s opinion. Congratulations are again in order for colleague Tim Kassouni, who represents

Check this out: according to a story in yesterday’s San Francisco Chronicle (“Pricey homes in Richmond’s eminent domain plan“), someone has figured out exactly which properties in Richmond, California are going to get “helped” by Mortgage Resolution Partners and the city in their plan to take underwater mortgages by eminent domain.

Seems like

Your mission Dan, should you decide to accept it, is to review the competing op-eds about Mortgage Resolution Partners-backed plan for municipalities to take underwater mortgages by eminent domain, and decide which ones are good, and which ones are full of it. 

Please join us this upcoming Monday, August 19, 2013 from 1:00 – 2:30 p.m. Pacific Time for a telebriefing, “Regulatory Takings Claims in California – Implications of Recent Decisions and Advice for Practitioners and Government Agencies.”

Brad Kuhn (Nossaman, California Eminent Domain Report) is the program Chair and will serve as moderator

EM Hauulaeminent_domain_abuse

Here’s the Complaint, filed yesterday in U.S. District Court in Honolulu in which a windward Oahu property owner challenges the City and County of Honolulu’s removal of her protest signs on her property. 

The rub? She’s protesting the City’s condemnation of her property back in 2010. Her complaint alleges that the city “neither owns

Here is a deeper look at the two lawsuits filed lastweek in U.S. District Court in San Francisco against the City ofRichmond, California, for the city’s Mortgage Resolution Partners-backed plan to condemn underwater mortgages, specifically those held by out-of-state securitizedbonds, residential mortgage-backed securitization (RMBS) trusts. The first Complaint was brought by Wells Fargo and a