UIPA - Public Records Law

Subscribe to UIPA - Public Records Law via RSS

Check out Texas State Library and Archives Comm’n v. Westmoreland, No. 03-22-00276 (Mar. 22, 2024), where the Texas Court of Appeals (Third District) rejected a claims of a putative owner of a letter that the State of Texas asserting that it owns the letter would be a taking.

Westmoreland possesses a historic letter, and offered it to the Commission for sale. Instead of negotiating, the Commission claimed that the letter is a “state record” that had at some point in the past been purloined from the State. We’re not going to buy from you what is already ours!

The Commission sued. Westmoreland brought counterclaims, including, inter alia, for a taking because “the Commission has clouded his ownership of the Letter by filing the present lawsuit[.]” Slip op. at 5. The commission’s lawsuit challenges Westmoreland’s ownership, and does not raise takings concerns:

[T]he Commission, through its lawsuit, seeks a…

Continue Reading Tex App: A Fight Over Who Owns A Historic Letter Isn’t A Takings Problem

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 have sold out the hotel block. After all, this is a pretty niche area of law. So what gives?

When we were in Austin last year, we thought it might be nice to try and answer that question. We asked Conference participants why they come, year-after-year (and in Austin, despite massive travel disruptions). Yes, it is the various venues (Nashville, Austin, Scottsdale, Palm Springs, to name a few recent locations), and yes, it is the excellent and useful programming.

But as we suspected it is more than that.

Continue Reading No FOMO: There’s Still Room For You To Join Us In New Orleans Feb 1-3, 2024 For The 41st ALI-CLE Eminent Domain & Land Valuation Litigation Conference

Why is it, you ask, that the ALI-CLE Eminent Domain & Land Valuation Litigation Conference (scheduled next February 1-3, 2024, in New Orleans) is an event that seems to be growing in popularity and attendance. In recent years, we have standing room only in the Conference halls, and have sold out the hotel block. After all, this is a pretty niche area of law. So what gives?

When we were in Austin earlier this year, we thought it might be nice to try and answer that question. We asked Conference participants why they come, year-after-year (and in Austin, despite massive travel disruptions). Yes, it is the various venues (Nashville, Austin, Scottsdale, Palm Springs, to name a few recent locations), and yes, it is the excellent and useful programming.

But as we suspected it is more than that. As the above video notes…

Continue Reading ALI-CLE’s Eminent Domain & Land Valuation Litigation Conference (Feb 1-3, 2024, New Orleans): Why Attend? Here’s Why.

Title

To all who joined from Hawaii and across the nation, thank you for doing so. As I mentioned during the webinar, here is the video and links to the cases and other materials I spoke about: 

  • “Emergency does not create power. Emergency does not increase granted power or remove or diminish the restrictions imposed upon the power granted or reserved.”  Home Building & Loan Assoc. v. Blaisdell, 290 U.S. 398 (1934).  
  • The King v. Tong Lee: Hawaii Supreme Court upholds restrictions on commercial laundries in Honolulu’s Chinatown deferring to the government’s assertion that doing so was necessary to preserve the public health. 
  • United States v. Pac. R.R., 120 U.S. 227 (1887): during the Civil War, the Union Army blew up railroad bridges “to prevent the advance of the enemy.” No compensation because the destruction of the bridges was a “military necessity.” “The destruction or injury of

…
Continue Reading Video, Materials And Links From Today’s Webinar, “Safety vs. Freedom: Are There Limits to Lockdowns?”

Join us next Tuesday, April 14, 2020, at 12 noon Hawaii Time (3pm PDT, 6pm EDT) for a free webinar sponsored by the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii, “Safety vs. Freedom: Are There Limits to Lockdowns?” Register here. 

Here’s the description of the program:

Governments at every level in Hawaii have responded to the coronavirus pandemic by implementing lockdown measures never before seen in the United States during peacetime. We have been forced to give up many of our freedoms, but by what authority can our governor and mayors shutter our businesses, declare vast swaths of our communities “non-essential” and make us stay home? Are there any legal limits to these shutdowns?

Joining us for a free webinar at noon, Tuesday, April 14, to help answer these questions will be Grassroot Scholar Robert Thomas, a widely published attorney who is a director with the law firm…

Continue Reading Safety Dance: Are There Limits To Lockdowns? Free Webinar April 14

When we previewed the 2017 ALI-CLE Eminent Domain & Land Valuation Litigation Conference while we were getting buried in the snow a couple of weeks ago, we promised there would be better weather in San Diego than much of the country was then experiencing. As you can see, we delivered.

We — and by “we” I mean the faculty, the ALI-CLE staff, and the record number of attendees who came to San Diego — also delivered on a really great conference. See our posts on several of the presentations here, here, here, and here for a flavor.

We also announced that the date and location for the 2018 Conference has been set, and the hotel and site have been booked:

2018 ALI-CLE
Eminent Domain & Land Valuation Litigation Conference
Francis Marion Hotel
Charleston, South Carolina
January 25-27, 2018

Stay tuned for details. Send your ideas for…

Continue Reading 2017 ALI-CLE Eminent Domain Conference Wrap, 2018 Venue Announcement

IMG_20170128_093740

Our final day was anchored, as usual, by Pacific Legal Foundation’s Jim Burling, and property rights guru and advocate Michael Berger. Jim was his usual riveting self, and Michael supplied the insight to cases which only he can.

In case you are wondering, the above is the view from the dais, and no, I didn’t bring a Spam calendar with me, it was a gift from a thoughtful New Jersey colleague who knows that Hawaii people love Spam. I will reserve comment on whether I love Spam, and simply say thank you for the calendar. 

We finished the day strong with the National Forum, where audience members took the mic and shared their cases, issues, and results with the rest of us. 

…
Continue Reading Links & Materials From Day 3 Of ALI-CLE Eminent Domain And Land Valuation Litigation Conference, San Diego

IMG_20170126_133958

Here are the links and references to the cases we spoke about today at our opening session on the national trends in eminent domain law at the 2017 ALI-CLE Eminent Domain and Land Valuation Litigation Conference in San Diego. 

We again have a record attendance, and a good number of new attendees. If you aren’t here now, we’re sorry you didn’t make it. But fear not: ALI-CLE has already set the date and location for the 2018 Conference: save the date on your calendars now — January 25-27, 2018, Charleston, South Carolina, at the Francis Marion Hotel. 

…
Continue Reading Day 1, 2017 ALI-CLE Eminent Domain And Land Valuation Litigation Conference, San Diego

ALI2017 - Copy
 ALI2017

We’ve teased some of the details on the 2017 ALI-CLE Eminent Domain and Land Valuation Litigation and Condemnation 101 Conference, to be held at the Westin San Diego, January 26-28, 2017, but here are the details you’ve been waiting for.

This is the “big one,” our annual 3-day festival of all things eminent domain, property, takings, inverse condemnation, and just compensation. Truly national in scope, this is the 34th annual edition, and the one conference you must attend. Our 2016 conference in Austin was one of the best in years, and we’re on the way to replicating it in 2017, with a great venue in an exciting city. 

Look for the web and printed brochures to show up in your mailboxes, but in the meantime, here are some of the highlights (we’ll post more in the next few days):

  • Relocation, relocation, relocation: we are featuring two sessions on this

…
Continue Reading Details: ALI-CLE Eminent Domain And Land Valuation Conference – San Diego, January 26-28, 2017

A short one from the Maine Supreme Judicial Court. In Pinkham v. Dep’t of Transportation, No. 2016 ME 74 (May 19, 2016), the court held that portions of the DOT’s appraiser’s report which appraised other properties being taken as part of the same project were not confidential or privileged under the state’s public records laws. 

The DOT was taking the property of Pinkham and others. It generated an appraisal report which included Pinkham’s property, and that of others. The DOT produced those parts of the report applicable to Pinkham, but claimed the parts about the other properties were “confidential” and subject to privilege, relying on a statute which provides that certain DOT records are confidential and “may not be disclosed.” The trial court agreed.

The Supreme Court reversed. Confidentiality under the state’s public records laws is not discovery in an eminent domain case. This is the “closed universe of litigation”…

Continue Reading Maine FOIA Doesn’t Make Parts Of DOT’s Appraisal Reports Confidential