Regulatory takings

Check out the U.S. Court of Appeals’ opinion in Peace Ranch, LLC v. Bonta, No. 22-16063 (Feb. 13, 2024), where the court concluded that the owner of a mobilehome park could bring a federal court challenge to a California statute, even before the state applied the statute and enforced it.

There’s a mobilehome park

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Today’s the day, 191 years ago, when — a mere 5 days after oral arguments — the U.S. Supreme Court issued its (in)famous opinion in Barron ex rel. Tiernan v. Mayor and City Council of Baltimore, 32 U.S. 243 (1833).

Generations of law students study this one in their Con Law classes, and it

Illinois adopted a statute that tweaked public pensions:

On January 1, 2020, Public Act 101-610 became effective and amended, in pertinent part, portions of the pension code to consolidate all applicable local police and firefighter pension fund assets into two statewide pension investment funds, one for police and the other for firefighters. Pursuant to the

A quick per curiam from the Ohio Supreme Court.

In State ex rel. AWMS Water Solutions, LLC v. Mertz, No. 2023-0125 (Ohio Jan. 24, 2024), the court issued a gentle (or maybe not-so-gentle) “benchslap” to the court of appeals. Here’s the scenario.

First of all, recall that Ohio does not recognize a

Don’t miss out!

We promise: this is the last time we’re going to try to entice you to the upcoming ALI-CLE Eminent Domain & Land Valuation Litigation Conference in New Orleans. We are getting close to capacity, but there is still room. In recent years, we have standing room only in the Conference halls, and

We’d guess that most people, if asked whether the courts can “do something” when the government acts beyond the authority delegated to it in the Constitution, would respond that “doing something” is exactly what courts are for. 

Bottom Line Up Front

And that is what drives our BLUF on today’s Supreme Court oral arguments in

“No need to ask, he’s a smooth operator…”

On Tuesday, January 16, 2024, the Supreme Court will hear arguments in a case we’ve  been following closely because it involves the fundamental limitation on the sovereign power to take private property. In our system, the sovereign indeed has the power to take private property against the

Here is a collection of commentary on the oral arguments in Sheetz v. El Dorado County, heard by the Supreme Court earlier this week. (Our own thoughts here.)