- Eminent domain - "Corporate Takings: why retail giants love eminent domain" at the Weekly Standard.
- Eminent domain - "Robin Hood in reverse." The Fort Wayne (IN) News-Sentinel's editorial on the post-Kelo landscape.
- Land use/Equal Protection - Cordi-Allen v. Conlon, No. 06-2300 (1st Cir., July 27, 2007). This decision involves the "class of one" issue in Equal Protection analysis in the land use context.
Land-use restrictions often set neighbor against neighbor, and can be a source of considerable turmoil in otherwise tranquil communities. So it is here: Barbara Cordi-Allen and her husband John Allen (the Allens) are landowners in the Cape Cod town of Truro, Massachusetts (the Town). They own a waterfront lot and wish to improve it. They have thus far been stymied in their efforts by a series of zoning, environmental, and licensing restrictions.
The Allens accuse the Town of singling them out for unfavorable treatment and thwarting their plans. The Town, with equal fervor, accuses the Allens of seeking advantages to which they are not entitled. The ill will has spread like a malignant growth and has come to envelop several of the Allens' neighbors.
The property owners claimed that the disparate treatment violated the Equal Protection Clause, but the First Circuit disagreed.
- Eminent domain/Due Process - The New York federal court has ruled in favor of a property owner that a municipality wrongfully exercised eminent domain and denied the landowner procedural due process by not providing proper notice of his right to contest the taking. Brody v. Village of Port Chester, No. 00 Civ. 7481 (HB) (SDNY, July 14, 2007). Story here from the local newspaper.
