Here's what we're reading today:
- New Ruling In Maui Water Case Still Doesn’t Resolve Old Dispute (Honolulu Civil Beat) - about the Hawaii Intermediate Court of Appeals' recent unpublished memorandum opinion in a long-ongoing water law fight on Maui. The long and the short of it is the court held that whether a short-term license from the State to use water (month-to-month, max one-year as the statute requires) is "temporary" or not (these licenses have been renewed for 18 years to allow the administrative process to be completed) is a factual question that can be resolved by summary judgment. Court held no. In our view, these things operate much like preliminary injunctions, which although they are temporary in nature, can stretch out for quite a long time while the wheels of justice grind. Cert application to the Hawaii SCT coming, for sure. Any guesses on which way this will come out: Native Hawaiian plaintiffs, water law, 18 years is "temporary?"
- Looking Back: Charles Reich and His Era (Walter Olson at Cato) - noting the death of Professor Charles Reich, author of the influential Yale Law Review article on "new property." A topic we've hit up from time to time.
- 'He's finished!' U2 guitarist The Edge's dreams of building $100million family compound on an untouched Malibu mountainside are shattered after he loses a 14-YEAR legal battle (Daily Mail) - In what may be the last chapter of a case we've been following (see California Coastal Development in a Nutshell: Hire Jesus - Moses, Actually - To Sell Your Luxe Home Plans, and Become One With the Mountain), the California Supreme Court denied review of the case, meaning that even a woke rock star can't develop in California.
