If you are in the California Southland (or plan to be in the next week), please be sure to reserve on your calendar Tuesday, August 13, 2024, to join us in-person for the launch of our colleague Jim Burling‘s forthcoming book, “Nowhere to Live: The Hidden Story of America’s Housing Crisis.”
Property rights
New Article: “The Ends of Means-Ends Scrutiny”
Here’s an article worth reading, just posted to SSRN, Procaccini, The End of Means-End Scrutiny (July 29, 2024).
For your takings and individual liberty nerds, please focus on pages 36-38 (showing how takings analysis is not accomplished by the usual means-ends scrutiny), pages 40-42 (social and economic liberties), and pages 43-44 (searches and seizure).
Why…
Govt: We Were Really Really Really About To Pay…Until You Forced Us To Pay! Sewer Board Seeks Rehearing In Self-Executing Just Comp Case
Just a few posts ago, we put up the Louisiana Supreme Court’s opinion in a case where property owners obtained a final inverse condemnation judgment ordering the New Orleans Sewer Board to pay just compensation.
Then…crickets. The sewer board did not satisfy the judgment. It relied on a provision in the Louisiana Constitution…
CA9: Unannounced Inspections As Condition Of Falconry License Are Subject To Nollan/Dolan Challenge
On the surface, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit’s opinion in Stavrianoudakis v. U.S. Fish & Wildlife Svc., No. 22-16788 (July 25, 2024) is about Article III standing (a highly technical gateway issue that is very federal courts wonky).
But taking a deeper look offers an insight into ways other…
Blight Slight: No Taking Of Property For “The Proposed Project” When No Project Has Been Proposed
You all have likely seen ’em, those “We Buy Houses Any Condition” billboards letting the world know that no matter what condition it might be in, there’s an outfit that says it is willing to buy your house.
Well, that outfit ran into the one other outfit that is willing to buy your house…
Federal Court In Removed Eminent Domain Case: Quick-Take/Immediate Possession Is Erie Procedural, So Does Not Apply

The site of the Erie incident, just a mile away from Mahon’s home.
Here’s an unusual, and kind of interesting one, from a U.S. District Court (Hawaii) in an eminent domain case brought by the County of Maui against the owner of Maui property which is needed for a solid waste disposal site…
Statute Allowing Public To Access Formerly Private Portions Of Rhode Island Beaches Is A Taking
Check out this decision, entered by a Rhode Island Superior Court (a general jurisdiction trial court) denying the State’s motion for summary judgment. The court concluded that a recently-adopted statute shifting the boundary between public and private property on RI’s beaches is a taking.
We won’t be commenting in too much detail because this…
New Article – “Sheetz v. County of El Dorado: Legislatures Must Comply with the Takings Clause” (Brian Hodges & Deb La Fetra)
Check this out: our Pacific Legal Foundation colleagues (Brian Hodges and Deborah La Fetra we on our Sheetz SCOTUS team), have posted a new scholarly piece on SSRN, “Sheetz v. County of El Dorado: Legislatures Must Comply with the Takings Clause.”
Here’s the Abstract:
For more than 30 years, the Supreme Court…
Statute Moving The Public/Private Beach Boundary Shoreward Is A Taking
Check out this decision, entered by a Rhode Island Superior Court (a general jurisdiction trial court) denying the State’s motion for summary judgment. The court concluded that a recently-adopted statute shifting the boundary between public and private property on RI’s beaches is a taking.
We won’t be commenting in too much detail because this…
New (State Court) “Project Influence” Cert Petition* – Inadmissibility Of Evidence Of Use & Value Of Property As Condemned

The famous corner of India and Milk, Boston
(at least for takings nerds)
Today, along with our friend and colleague Hawaii eminent domain lawyer Mark M. Murakami, we filed this Application for a Writ of Certiorari* in a condemnation case that has been pending for more than a decade (including more than five…




