Municipal & Local Govt law

Check this out, a local government has filed a cert petition seeking reversal of one of those relatively rare circumstances where the property owner won below on a temporary regulatory takings claim for the County’s denial of a development permit.

We won’t go into details on this, but urge you to read the petition, especially

We were all set to write up the Wisconsin Supreme Court’s recent opinion in Sojenhomer LLC v. Village of Egg Harbor, No. 2021AP1589 (June 19, 2024) — after all, we were already following the case — when Lawprof Ilya Somin beat us to the punch: “Wisconsin Supreme Court Rules Sidewalks are not “Pedestrian

2012-02-06_11-19-51_574 (Small)

Here’s the latest in a case (and issue) we’ve been following closely.

In Watson Memorial Spiritual Temple of Christ v. Korban, No. 24-0055 (June 28, 2024), the Louisiana Supreme Court unanimously affirmed the Court of Appeal, concluding the duty to actually pay just compensation for a taking is ministerial. 

That may

The line between negligence torts and inverse condemnation can be a fine one. In Roman Realty, LLC v. City of Morgantown, No. 220587 (June 11, 2024), the West Virginia Supreme Court came down on the tort side.

Now before we go on, a caution: technically speaking the claimant did not assert an inverse condemnation

BetterCoastalCommnReportCover

The California Coastal Commission is infamous for being the most out-of-control governmental agency in the nation. This regulatory leviathan fancies itself the undisputed czar of land use and other activities in its fiefdom, the California coastal zone.

Created in 1976 as an agency with regulatory authority across California’s 1,000+ miles of coast (and land in

A short one (per curiam is one two-sentence paragraph), with an interesting concurring opinions from the Florida District Court of Appeals (4th District).

In Vazquez v. City of Hallandale Beach, No. 4D2023-0833 (June 12, 2024), the court held that a restrictive covenant that ran with Vazquez’ land (and others in his subdivision, including the

Screenshot 2024-06-12 at 16-43-41 California Courts - Appellate Court Case Information Screenshot 2024-06-12 at 16-43-31 California Courts - Appellate Court Case Information

Disclosure: this one is one of ours, so we’re not going to do a deep dive or do much commentary (must resist!).

Yesterday, the California Supreme Court granted a Los Osos property owner’s petition, and agreed to review an (unpublished) Court of Appeal opinion which held that the California Coastal Commission has

Here’s the latest in a case we’ve been following.

Our friends at the Institute for Justice have filed this cert petition asking the Supreme Court to take up the case where a New York town eminent domained the Brinkmann property for a public park.

What’s wrong with that, you ask…isn’t a public park a

This one is about Robert Moses. Yeah, that guy. You may think you know the story, but even if you do, it will be worth your time to listen to this episode of Dave and Kristen’s Infrastructure Junkies podcast. You will probably learn something new like me.

Here’s the pod’s description of the episode:

Games people play
Night or day they’re just not matchin’
What they should do
Keeps me feelin’ blue
Been down too long
Right, wrong, I just can’t stop it

This one isn’t about takings, but is nonetheless a must-read.

In Health Freedom Defense Fund, Inc. v. Carvalho, No. 22-55908 (June 7, 2024), a panel