Water rights | Public trust

We listened live last week, but the court has now made the recording available in Johnson v. City of Suffolk.

This is what we call the “oyster takings” case in which Nansemond River oystermen claim that their property was taken when the City of Suffolk and the Sanitation District dumped sewage into the

Here’s the latest in a case we’ve been following even before its inception (last semester, our William and Mary class visited the site and witnessed the oyster operation affected – see video above), Johnson v. City of Suffolk.

This morning, the Virginia Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the case, and we livestreamed it

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We have looked through the entire judicial and scholarly oeuvre of SCOTUS nominee Judge Amy Barrett, who today is continuing to run the gauntlet of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Naturally, our scanners were searching for any of her decisions or writings that might give us some clue how a “Justice Barrett” might treat takings and

We’ve been meaning to write up the U.S. Court of Appeals’ decision in a case we’ve been followingProtect Our Parks, Inc v. Chicago Park District, No. 19-2308 (Aug. 231, 2020), but our Illinois colleague Mike Ryan was quicker on the draw.

Rather than summarize Mike’s write up, we simply suggest you go

News just in: we’ve just received confirmation that the Conference will not be in-person in Scottsdale in January 2021, and we’re going online.

Not a big surprise, but still a bit disappointing, and it’s a shame that the circumstances won’t allow us to meet in-person to talk shop and to renew our friendships like we

Here’s the amicus brief filed yesterday in a Virginia Supreme Court case we’ve been following.

This is a case at the intersection of property and takings law, and environmental protection. Several Nansemond River oystermen own a lease from the state for the riverbed, which among other things, allows them to harvest some of the

A long opinion, but a short post. In Stanford Vina Ranch Irrigation Co. v. California, No. C085762 (June 18, 2020), the California Court of Appeal held that water rights are not really property rights.

That’s a bit of an overstatement, of course. But not a huge one.

In an inverse condemnation case, the court

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Here’s the latest in a case we’ve been following (we visited the site last November with our William and Mary class), the property owners’ Opening Brief in  a case being considered by the Virginia Supreme Court.

This is a case at the intersection of property and takings law, and environmental protection. Several Nansemond River oystermen

There’s a lot of opinion in the U.S. Court’s of Appeals’ opinion in Stratta v. Roe, No. 18-50994 (May 29, 2020). Yes, the court reversed the district court’s dismissal of a takings claim. But most of the opinion is devoted to the question of whether a Texas water conservation board — an agency whose

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This fall, we’ll be back at the William and Mary Law School (hopefully in-person, depending on the circumstances and the yet-to-be-announced approach to be taken by the College of William and Mary), teaching two of our favorite subjects.

Not only will this be the third time leading Eminent Domain and Property Rights (Law 608), but