Update: the Supreme Court heard oral arguments on December 2, 2009. The transcript and our summary of the arguments are posted here (Petitioners’ argument), here (Respondents’ argument), and here (United States as amicus).

Here are links and other items of interest about Stop the Beach Renourishment, Inc. v. Florida Dep’t of Environmental Protection, No.

Our post on the subject is located here.

Attorney Paul M. Sullivan, currently a lawyer for the U.S. Navy but formerly an adjunct professor at the U. Hawaii Law School and a member of the Hawaii State Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, has reviewed U.H. lawprof Jon Van Dyke’s book, Who Owns the Crown Lands of Hawaii (U.H. Press…

Act 2’s Achilles Heel: Short Time Frame

The court also found it significant that Act 2 granted”large capacity ferry vessel companies” benefits for only a limitedamount of time:     

In contrast, the Bulgo court considered anAct that was unlimited in duration. As such, it was possible thatfuture circumstances would require another county to exercise…

The court distinguished the lone case in which itinterpreted the term “general law” in a challenge to a statute passed by the statelegislature to allow Maui County to hold a special election after acouncilmember died between his election and taking office. Bulgo v. County of Maui,430 P.2d 321 (Haw. 1967). The statute in that…

In Hauselt v. County of Butte, No. C054927 (Mar. 23, 2009), the California Court of Appeal held

The property owner asserted the County inversely condemned its property by implementing a drainage plan which resulted in the land being flooded more often than usual, and that the County denied his proposal to develop the property.

[This review was originally published in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin on September 20, 2009]

You remember that line in the Stevie Wonder classic — “For once I can say this is mine, you can’t take it“?

It turns out they can.

In 2005 in Kelo v. New London, the U.S. Supreme Court held…