For those of you who are members of the ABA Section of State and Local Government Law's Land Use Committee (if you aren't, you can become a member easily; just ask me how), please tune in on June 12, 2015 for our monthly teleconference.
Here's the announcement:
Our third meeting is scheduled for Friday, June 12, 2015 at 2:00 pm EDT, and we will be featuring as our speaker, Robert Thomas, a land use lawyer and publisher of the law blog inversecondemnation.com (who is also the Chair of the Section’s Eminent Domain Committee) who will present a 20 minute program about the key takings case now awaiting decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, Horne v. United States Dep’t of Agriculture.I hope you can join us.FREE Teleconference Sponsored by the Land Use Committee
Friday, June 12, 2015
2:00 p.m. EDT
Dial-in 888-3967955
Passcode 797687#Everything a Land Use Lawyer Needs To Know About Dancing California Raisins: A Report From the Oral Arguments in Horne v. USDA
Speaker: Robert H. Thomas, Damon Key Leong Kupchak Hastert, Honolulu, Hawaii
In late April, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a takings case that may have slipped under your radar because it is not a traditional land use case. The implications for takings doctrine and land use law, however, may be huge, as reflected by the number of amicus briefs submitted to the Court. The case involves Marvin and Laura Horne, California raisin farmers who were accused of violating a New Deal-era statute which was designed to control the market price of raisins. This statute and its implementing regulations, which Justice Kagan described as “perhaps the world’s most outdated law,” require farmers like the Hornes to turn over to the government a portion of their annual crop – up to 50% -- “as an entrance fee” to the market, as the Ninth Circuit explained. The first time this case was considered by the Court a few years ago, the Justices agreed with the Hornes that they could raise the Takings Clause as a defense to the imposition of the regulation, and were not limited to seeking the payment of just compensation in the Court of Federal Claims. The Ninth Circuit on remand upheld the regulation, concluding the requirement to turn over to the government a portion of the yearly crop was not a taking, and the Supreme Court agreed to consider the case again.Mr. Thomas attended the arguments, and will brief us with his observations and thoughts about the implications and impacts of the case, and perhaps even a prediction about how the Court might rule.
* * * *
This exciting new opportunity is for our existing Land Use Committee members and those of you who are land use practitioners in our Section who may not yet have joined our committee. The meetings occur on a monthly basis, by conference call, in addition to our in-person meetings at our Section’s spring and fall conferences. These regular monthly meetings consist of some committee business, offering opportunities for all of our members to participate in CLE programs, book projects, speaking opportunities and periodical publications.
Also, at each phone/webinar meeting, we will have a substantive program that you will not want to miss, featuring cutting edge subjects in the area of land use, planning and zoning law.