"Unless the permit condition serves the same governmental purpose as the development ban, the building restriction is not a valid regulation of land use but an out-and-out plan of extortion." Goodbye To Justice Scalia

The U.S. and Hawaii flags at half-staff this morning at the Hawaii Capitol

So Justice Scalia is gone. We all knew this day had to come, eventually. But we were not prepared for it so soon.

With his opinions in Nollan, Lucas, Rapanos, and Stop the Beach Renourishment, I think it is fair to say that he was a champion of private property rights, even though I am always uncomfortable when judges are called "champions" of certain causes, because they really aren't supposed to have causes. I'd imagine that Justice Scalia probably would agree that the only "cause" judges should serve is to call the law objectively as they see it. Fair enough. But even a cursory review of his property law jurisprudence tells us that his absence will leave a large hole, unlikely to be filled.  

There are a lot of retrospectives on the man and his work, and we really can't do them justice. So instead, we will just link to what we think are the best, and most relevant:

• Scalia and constitutional property rights - from Ilya Somin at Volokh/WaPo.
• Antonin Scalia, R.I.P. - from Gideon Kanner. 
• Justice Scalia's three most important land use decisions - from Stephen Miller at Land Use Prof Blog.
• More on Scalia's Land Use Legacy - from Jamie Baker Roskie at Land Use Prof Blog.