Vested rights

In a 2-1 decision (en banc next?) in a case we’ve been following with some interest in which a Marin County oyster farming operation in the National Seashore sued the Interior Department for its decision to not renew the farm’s permit, in this opinion, a Ninth Circuit panel held that courts have jurisdiction…

This really was a “blockbuster” Term for the Supreme Court and takings law: no less than three cases (and four, maybe five, if you expand it slightly to include property-owner favorable cases such as Lozman and last term’s Sackett), and as Gideon Kanner noted recently, the CLE sessions are flying fast and furiously.

Late last year, we posted the Complaint in a federal court lawsuit originating on Kauai. In that case, the owner of a property that has been designated for resort development for 35 years asserted that the adoption of a Charter amendment by the County’s voters and a follow-on ordinance adopted by the County Council that…

Yesterday, the Hawaii Intermediate Court of Appeals issued an opinion in In re Trustees Under the Will of the Estate of James Campbell, No. 30006 (June 13, 2013), a fascinating case involving the nature of Torrens title. In doing so, the court rebuffed the State of Hawaii’s attempted land grab, which would have undermined…

Congratulations: if you understood that headline (much less are eager to read this post), you are officially a takings geek.

As we noted earlier, after the Supreme Court issued its decision in Arkansas Game and Fish Comm’n v. United States, No. 11-597 (Dec. 4, 2012), the Court of Federal Claimsin Big Oak Farms…

Here’s the BIO recently filed by the United States in Estate of Hage v. United States, No. 12-918 (cert. petition filed Jan. 17, 2013). This brief responds to the cert petition which seeks Supreme Court review of Estate of Hage v. United States, 687 F.3d 1281 (Fed. Cir. 2012).

In that case…

Here’s the opinion of the California Court of Appeal (1st District) in an appeal we’ve been following, Lockaway Storage v. County of Alameda, No. A30874 (May 9, 2013), affirming that the County of Alameda is liable for a temporary regulatory taking under Penn Central, and awarding the property owners nearly three-quarters of a…

Today, on behalf of the Cato Institute and a coalition of Western-state public policy and research foundations, we filed this amicus brief in supporting the City of Tombstone‘s cert petition in City of Tombstone v. United States, No. 12-1069 (cert. petition filed Feb. 27, 2013).

In that case, in 2011 a forest fire…

Before the title of this post causes you to flee, please bear with us.

Oral arguments have just concluded in the Hawaii Intermediate Court of Appeals in a fascinating case involving the nature of “Torrens” title and, in a broader sense, the nature of property rights themselves. Disclosure: we filed an amicus brief in the…