Municipal & Local Govt law

Screenshot 2023-04-04 at 09-45-09 Information - Texas Eminent Domain Conference

If you are in the Austin area (or anywhere in Texas for that matter), please consider joining us April 13 and 14, 2023 for the 22d Annual Texas Eminent Domain Conference.

Two days of great programming and talking shop, plus a chance to connect and re-connect with friends and colleagues. And, of course, all

This just in: the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York has issued this Opinion & Order in the case which challenges New York City’s rendering “guaranty clauses” in commercial leases unenforceable due to the declared Co-19 emergency.

This is a case we’ve been following. Earlier, the Second Circuit vacated the district

As most of you probably already know, there’s a demon lurking out there in takings claims. Not of the Levon Helm-narrated The Right Stuff variety, but maybe just as deadly in litigation.

That’s right, the too-early-or-too-late thing (or in some cases, the too-early-and-too-late argument). Getting caught between arguments that a takings claim

Check this out, a recently-filed cert petition in a case we’ve been following, filed by our friends and colleagues at the Institute for Justice. This one involves an issue we’ve been on top of also, most recently in these two cases (see here and here).

That is, what does the Supreme Court’s description

If a zoning statute or ordinance sets out the uses permitted in a zone, and the uses not permitted in the zone, and a property owner wants to make a use not permitted in the zone, all she needs to do is apply for a variance, or a Conditional Use Permit, or a nonconforming use

Screenshot 2023-03-03 at 08-06-54 Robert Thomas inversecondemnation.com on Twitter

Let’s say you know nothing else about an appeal except it is being decided by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and the case is a constitutional challenge to rent control. What’s your best guess about the outcome (the district court dismissed for failure to state a claim)?

When the Second Circuit

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Here’s the merits brief, filed yesterday in the above-depicted Court by our law firm colleagues, headed by Counsel of Record Christina Martin in Tyler v. Hennepin County, No. 22-166, a case and an issue we’ve been following closely. This is the one, where, as recounted in the petition:

Hennepin County

Screenshot 2023-02-23 at 11-13-54 Toward Principled Background Principles in Takings Law

Check this out, a new article co-authored by a federal judge’s law clerk and lawprof Lior Strahilevitz (Chicago). With the title, “Toward Principled Background Principles in Takings Law” are we going to read it? You bet. (Unlike a lot of new scholarship that we post here, we read this one immediately.)

Here’s the

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If you are in Honolulu, please join us on Wednesday, March 8, 2023, 4:30-5:30 p.m. at the University of Hawaii Law School for Professor Thomas Mitchell on “Heirs’ Property and the Uniform Partition of Heirs Property Act: Challenges, Solutions, and Historic Reform.”

Our U.H. Land Use class is attending to learn more about “heirs’ property” (described as “the biggest problem you’ve never heard of“), and so should you. Yes, Hawaii has adopted the Uniform Partition of Heirs’ Property Act and we have followed this issue for some time, but if you didn’t know about this, now is your chance to catch up.

Here are the details from the U.H. newsletter:

Carlsmith Ball presents the 2023 Distinguished Gifford Lecturer in Real Property, Thomas W. Mitchell. Mitchell is a professor at Boston College Law School, where he holds the Robert F. Drinan, S.J. Endowed Chair and serves as the Director of the Initiative on Land, Housing & Property Rights. He is a national expert on property issues facing disadvantaged families and communities and has published leading scholarly works addressing these matters.

In 2020, Professor Mitchell was named one of 21 recipients of the MacArthur Fellowship in recognition of the substantial impact his professional work has had in assisting disadvantaged farmers and property owners, people who are disproportionately but not exclusively African American and other people of color. He is the only lawyer in his MacArthur Fellowship class. Please join us for this Distinguished Gifford Lecture; a light reception is to follow from 5:30 – 6:30 p.m.

Come, join us for this compelling session.
Continue Reading Join Us On Wed March 8 at 4:30pm For 2023 Distinguished Gifford Lecture In Real Property – Prof Thomas Mitchell On “Heirs’ Property & the Uniform Partition of Heirs’ Property Act: Challenges, Solutions, & Historic Reform”

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The International Right of Way Association‘s Real Estate Law Committee produces twice-a-year reports “which contain summaries of eminent domain decisions and legislation within the United States.”

And what is really nice is that they make the report available.

Here’s the latest.

We’re posting it here because we’re one of the co-authors. Hat tip