With the opinion in the Knick v. Township of Scott case to drop as soon as Tuesday (we’re guessing the opinion will be by Chief Justice Roberts, by the way), hold on: we’re about to get super nerdy here. Impossibly nerdy. Yes, we’re revisiting the Star Trek analogies. We’ve been down this road before
All Your Race Are Belong To Us: Baltimore Is Condemning The Preakness Stakes (We’re Serious)
Pop quiz: Quick! Name the races in the Triple Crown of horse racing… There’s the Kentucky Derby (check) … the Belmont Stakes (check) … and … oh yeah, the Preakness Stakes. We always almost forget that last one.
But the City of Baltimore sure hasn’t. Because the home city of Pimlico racetrack and the aforementioned
NJ Appellate Division On Land Banking: “Take Now, Decide Later What To Do With It” Isn’t Good Enough
Here’s the decision in a case we’ve been following from afar in which our colleagues Anthony Della Pelle and Robert McNamara are on the side of property owners, Borough of Glassboro v. Grossman, No. A-4556-17T2 (Jan. 7, 2019).
This is redevelopment, New Jersey style. We ask that you read the opinion (it isn’t terribly
Knick And Klingon Foreheads: Retconning Williamson County
Retroactive continuity — or “retconning” — is, according to that authoritative source Wikipedia, a “literary device in which established facts in a fictional work are adjusted, ignored, or contradicted by a subsequently published work which breaks continuity.”
For example, compare the real-world explanation for why the 1960’s Star Trek show’s Klingons didn’t have
Litigation As A Substitute For Legislation? Coverage Of Our ABA Section’s Federalism CLE
One of our last acts as Chair of the ABA’s Section of State and Local Government Law was to green light a CLE program at the recent Chicago annual meeting entitled “State Attorneys General and Federalism in the Obama and Trump Eras.”
The title kind of gives it away, but the main topic
Video: Ninth Circuit Penn Central Oral Arguments
Here is the video of last Friday’s oral arguments in a case we’ve been following, in which the owners of a mobile home park successfully challenged a California municipality’s rent control ordinance as a taking.
In Colony Cover Properties v. City of Carson, a U.S. District Court for the Central District of California jury
NC App: State Does Not Have Sovereign Immunity From Takings: “sovereign immunity must be juxtaposed with the contrary sovereignty of the individual, whose natural rights preceded government and were enumerated in the federal Bill of Rights”
The latest in the “Map Act” inverse cases out of North Carolina. This is a longer post, but you really will want to read the summary, or just pick up the opinion and read it.
These are the cases in which the N.C. Department of Transportation, under the power of the state’s Map Act, for
6th Circuit: City’s “War Of Attrition” Meant Regulatory Takings Claim Ripe For Federal Review
The Sixth Circuit’s opinion in Lilly Investments v. City of Rochester, No. 15-2289 (Jan. 5, 2017) is not slated for publication, but its worth a read anyhow because it involves Williamson County ripeness, and the “final decision” rule. Here’s how the court summarized the case:
This case concerns Louis Leonor’s efforts to open a
Must Read: Michael Berger On “Property, Democracy, & The Constitution”
Last year, we posted about the Brigham-Kanner Conference, the annual meeting at William and Mary Law School where we talk all things property rights and award the Brigham-Kanner Property Rights Prize. (By the way, this year’s conference will be held in The Hague, The Netherlands in October. But more on that soon, in
Fighting Eminent Domain, Texas Style: Form Your Own Utility District, Plead Immunity
The issue determined by the Texas Supreme Court in In re Lazy W District No. 1, No. 15-0117 (May 27, 2016), was whether — in a case where one governmental entity is trying to condemn another governmental entity’s property — the trial court must resolve the power to take issue before or after the